iiiiPiiiiliiiii!ilipi'iic'«;M; 






.*^^% 



.0 



y. ' . . « * / > 



^O 



'^ 



>^^^..o^^^V 






.^ :i 






\^. 



^^0^ 

^^°<. 
r o 






'^0^ 






<^. 






.^s' 












'•f> 






.-^'^ 



fa o* 



^'1/ 



^°-n^. 









•*^ ^V!^ 



* o » o ' «,^ 





















-^^ . 



";^ 



• • * V 






.0 ^^ 



4 o 



'^^ 



,V 






.^^' % 



X .v^ 









>S* 'rfT'r: 



'o A*- *(f 

■0 ^°" " O 






"''/'";>) 6 \\>r. 






















.^^m- 



■v" "-? 



.^^^ ^ 









^ 



rO c ° ' " ■» O 






V 
•^ 



.-^' 



o > 



'•^, 



* o « o ° V 

V 









xi^' 



'^ 



-y 



^^ 



t. 



.;'^ 


0° -'"- 




■■•?-*. 




.^' 




-0^ 


o 




■--o 


V* 




^ * 


^^ 


^ 




.v^ 


^t. 




Jo 

» 1 




"°. - 








* £. 


-v 


* "^ 


cv 


J^ ^' 


' 


-'* '^ 




V 


■^ 


• *? 


(fT--, 






































c°V 




3 V 


. ' 













.*^ 






-?» 



>-/". 






'V^ 0^- 












^oV" 



.'^'^'' *V 



-^^0^ 



ip 









^q. 



v^-^. 









A' 



V 




WILLIAM I'KXX. 



A SHORT HISTORY 



OF 



PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 

SMITH BURNHAM 

Professor of History in the State Normal 
School at West Chester, Pennsylvania 




HINDS. NOBLE & ELDREDGE 

New York Philadelphia 



1^ , 



Copyright, 1912. by 
HINDS. NOBLE & ELDREDGE 



©CI.A31iKJ50 



PREFACE 

The purpose of this little book is to provide the boys and girls 
in the schools of Pennsylvania with a brief and clear account of the 
origin and growth of our state and its institutions. Believing 
that history is not merely past politics, but past life, the writer has 
tried to place due emphasis upon every phase of that life — social, 
industrial, political, intellectual, and religious. It has been his 
aim to state the principles upon which Pennsylvania was founded, 
to trace the steady growth of the state from small beginnings to its 
present imperial greatness, and to introduce the men, many of them 
well-nigh forgotten, who were the makers of that greatness. 

Just a word to those who may study and teach this book. Par- 
rot-like memorizing is the most serious fault in much of our history 
teaching. The poorest use to make of any text-book in history is to 
commit it to memory. The first thing to do in studying the history 
lesson is to read it. Reading is thinking the author's thought 
after him. No one can do that without understanding the words 
and phrases in which the author expresses that thought. Hence, in 
assigning the lesson, the teacher should explain and illustrate the use 
of any words or statements in it that the children cannot get for 
themselves. Before reciting, the pupils should ask their teacher the 
meaning of any words or expressions in the lesson which they may 
not have understood when they studied it. When a lesson has 

(iii) 



IV PREFACE 

been read in this way the next thinr; to do is to think about it. 
Here- is the j^reat opj)ortunity of the teacher to suggest and guide 
and stimulate. Problems of inference, of discrimination, of com- 
parison, of judgment, will readily suggest themselves. What 
facts are vital and worth reiiienibering ? When teacher and 
l)upils thinking together have decided ui)()n these facts, they should 
be learned. "Let memorizing be a by-product of thinking, not a 
substitute for it." 

The author is grateful to Principal George Morris Philips, of the 
West Chester State Normal School ; to his colleagues in the Normal 
School, Professors C. A. Wagner, S. C. Schmucker, J. F. Newman, 
F. H. Green, Miss Vera V. Bash, and Miss .'Mice Cochran; to Mrs. 
J. F. Newman, formerly a teacher in the State Normal School at 
Shippensburg; and especially to Dr. Armand J. Gerson, Principal 
of the Robert Morris Adjunct School of Practice, Philadelphia, who 
has read nearly all of the manuscript of the book, for many helpful 
suggestions and criticisms. Miss Marian L. Gill has given valu- 
able assistance with the maps. 

Smith Burnham. 
West Chester, Pa., 
June 20, igi2. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter ^^^^ 

I. — The Founder ^ 

II.— The Land 9 

III.— The Settlers iQ 

IV. — Life in Colonial Pennsylvania 28 

v.— Pennsylvania in the Revolution 40 

VI.— The New State in the New Nation 60 

VII.— A Half-century of Political Life 71 

VIII.— The Highways of Trade and Travel 84 

IX.— The Growth of Industries 96 

X.— The Rise of the School System 108 

XL— Slavery and Politics 1 20 

XII.— Pennsylvania in the Civil War 131 

XIII. — Politics and Government UQ 

XIV. — The Great Industries of Pennsylvania 160 

XV.— Pennsylvania in Science, Art, .\nd Literature. 172 

XVI. — The Problems of To-day .\nd To-morrow 184 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



CHAPTER I 
THE FOUNDER 

1. Penn's Early Years. — William Penn, the founder of 
Pennsylvania, was born in London in 1644. His father 
was an admiral in the British Navy. His mother, Mar- 
garet Jasper, was the daughter of a merchant in the city 
of Rotterdam, in Holland. England was at war in those 
days, and while his father was fighting upon the seas 
William was living quietly with his mother in the country. 
Here he attended Chigwell School , where he studied Latin 
and Greek, together with " cyphering and casting-up 
accounts." 

People talked and thought much about religion in the 
England in which William Penn was growing up, and he 
was deeply moved by what he heard. In his twelfth 
year he felt " that he had been awakened or called to a 
holy life." This impression seemed to him the voice of 
God. He listened to it, and from that hour religion was 
the foremost interest in his life. 

After he was twelve years old William studied at home 
under a tutor, and when he was fifteen he entered the 
University of Oxford. Here he advanced rapidly in his 
studies and took an active part in athletic sports, of which 

(1) 



2 HISTORY OF PE\NSVL\ ANIA 

he was wry fond. About this time hv bc,u;an to attend the 
meetin<.!;s of the religious society of Friends, or Quakers, 
and what he heard in them made so deep an impression 
upon him and so profoundly influenced not only his own 
life, but the history of Pennsylvania as well, that we must 
incjuire what it was. 

2. George Fox and His Times. — The first half of the 
seventeenth century was a period of great political and 
religious unrest in England. It was at this time that 
the Stuart kings, James I and Charles I, were taxing the 
people without the consent of Parliament, and trying to 
make every one worship according to the practices of 
the Church of England. Before the middle of the cen- 
tury the discontent with this policy became so great that 
many of the English people took up arms against Charles I, 
defeated him, and later put him to death as an enemy of 
his country. For some years after the execution of the 
king England was called a Commonwealth, or Republic, 
although it really was governed by Oliver Cromwell, one 
of the greatest men in all its history. This overturning of 
affairs in England is sometimes called the Puritan Revolu- 
tion. The Puritans were those people in England who 
were clissatisfied with the form of government and the 
mode of worshij) of the established church and with the 
social and moral life of their country. They agreed in 
wanting a change, but were very far from agreeing among 
themselves as to what that change should be. Conse- 
quently, many sects arose. It is in this age of confusion 
and revolution that we first hear of George Fox. 

The child of lowly but pious parents, George Fox 
possessed a deeply religious nature. In his early manhood 



THE FOUNDER 3 

he was employed as a shepherd, and during the long and 
quiet hours of his daily work he thought much upon re- 
ligious things. He was greatly troubled by the conflict be- 
tween good and evil constantly going on within him, and 
the priests and ministers to whom he appealed could give 
him little help. At last a voice within him seemed to 
say, " There is one, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to 
thy condition." This gave him great joy, and as he 
listened he grew in the knowledge of divine things " with- 
out the help of any man, book, or writing." 

George Fox soon found that there were many Chris- 
tians in England who were dissatisfied alike with the 
established church and with the various sects of the 
Puritans. Sometimes these persons met to talk together 
about the religious life. Sometimes they sat together in 
silence. When Fox began to tell his experiences at these 
meetings he found many kindred spirits. Then he be- 
gan to preach at fairs, markets, and other public places. 
Great crowds flocked to hear him and many were con- 
vinced by his ministry. In this way arose the society of 
Friends, or the Quakers. His zeal, wisdom, dauntless 
courage, and mighty personal power made George Fox 
their natural leader. 

3. The Quaker Faith and Life. — The fundamental be- 
lief of George Fox and the early Quakers was that God 
spoke directly to the soul of each one of them. This 
revelation they called the Inner Light " which lighteth 
every man." For this divine teaching they must wait in 
silence with attentive minds, and when it came they must 
believe and preach as they were thus led. Such a faith 
made forms of worship and religious ceremonies seem un- 



4 HISTORY OF PKN'NSVIA AMA 

necessary. It Kit no place for j)rii.sts or ministers, 
(lod mii^ht choose the luimljlest man or woman to dcHver 
His message. 

The Quakers Ixlieved in the ef|uality of all men. 
They refused to ])ay the marks of resjx'Ct which were then 
sui)posed to be due to rank or station in life. " When 
the Lord sent me forth into the world," said George Fox, 
** He forljade me to put off my hat to any, high or low; and 
I Was reijuircd to say Ihcc and thou to all men and women, 
without any respect to ricli or poor, great or small." 

" I am a Christian, and therefore cannot fight," was 
the reply of the Quaker when urged to serve in the army. 
He thought that all wars were wrong and that if ])eople 
would live virtuously there would l)e no occasion for them. 
He refused to take judicial oaths and taught that simple, 
truthful statements were best. He gave jjerfect obedience 
to all laws that did not interfere with his conscience, but 
persistently disobeyed every law which he thought wrong. 
As there were many laws in England in the seventeenth 
century limiting free s])eech and religious liberty, the 
Quaker was often in trouble. 

The early (Quakers were famous for their missionary 
zeal, and ewrywhere they made converts. They were 
very outspoken. They never failed to rebuke inicjuity 
wherever they found it. They preached as plainly to 
the great of the earth as to the lowly. It is no wonder 
that many peo])le thought thc-m a very troublesome folk. 

4. Pcnn Becomes a Quaker. — In the meetings which he 
attended while at Oxford, Penn was deeply moved by the 
preaching of a Quaker named Thomas Toe. His ab- 
sences from the college chapel began to be noticed and 



THE FOUNDER 5 

punished. Just at this time a rule was made requiring 
all students, according to an ancient custom, to wear 
gowns in chapel. Penn and his friends not only refused 
to obey this rule, but tore the gowns from the backs of 
those who wore them. For this offense he was expelled 
from college. 

Admiral Penn was very angry. William speaks of 
" the bitter usage I underwent when I returned to my 
father — whipping, beating, and turning out of doors." 
This harsh treatment seems to have had little effect upon 
the boy, for presently his father determined to send him 
to France in the hope that a merry life in Paris would 
cure him of his pious fancies. After two years abroad, 
partly spent in school in France and partly in travel in 
Italy, Penn came home a strong and handsome young man 
with fine clothes and polished manners. 

He now began the study of law, but soon the plague 
broke out in London and he went into the country. Here, 
amid f|uiet scenes, his old seriousness returned. Noticing 
this, his father sent him to Ireland, where he resided upon 
one of the admiral's estates and entered heartily into the 
pleasures of the gay court at Dublin. One day business 
took him to Cork, and while there he again heard the 
Quaker preacher, Thomas Toe. It seemed to Penn that 
every word was spoken straight to his own soul. His 
decision was made for all time. He would be a Quaker. 

5. Penn the Quaker Leader. — When William Penn in- 
sisted upon following the social customs of the Quakers, 
his father again turned him out of the house. The Friends 
received him, and from that time he became a preacher 
among them. In this work he not only ran against the 



6 IllsrukV OF PENNSYLVANIA 

))R JLidiccs of the j)C'Oj)lc, but disobeyed certain laws which 
hmiled free speech and free action. During the next 
few years he was frequently in |)rison for saying and doing 
what these laws forbade. He always firmly refused to 
obey such unjust and wicked laws. On one occasion 
he said, '* My ]:)rison shall be my grave before T will 
budge one jot. I owe my conscience to no mortal man." 
I'enn occujjied his time in prison in writing books, and 
in this way gave the world the first clear statement of 
the teachings of the Friends. 

After a time William became reconciled with his father, 
and \vhen the admiral died in 1670 his son inherited his 
estate. 'I wo years later he married a beautiful and ac- 
complished young Friend named Gulielma Springett. 
He continued his missionary journeys about the country 
and on one occasion made an extended preaching trip 
through (u'rmany. This journey is important because 
it made Penn and his ideas known in that part of Germany 
which was later to send many settlers to Pennsylvania. 

Meantime Penn entered more and more into political 
life, which a|)j)eale(l to him almost as much as did his 
religious work. The king's brother, the Duke of York, 
afterward James H, had bivn his father's friend, and 
WilHam came to have great inlluence with him. King 
Charles H also looked kindly upon him. It was Penn's 
earnest pur|X)se to use this inlluence to advance the cause 
of ri'ligion. He was now the foremost leader of his sect 
in England — a mature man, gracious in manner, wise in 
judgment, far-seeing in vision, and noble in character. 

6. F^enn Acquires Pennsylvania. — Perha])s George Fox 
first dreamed of a settlement bevond the Atlantic where 



THE FOUNDER 7 

persecuted English Quakers could live in peace. For 
years Penn had been thinking of such a home for his people. 
With other Friends he had helped to manage the colony 
of West New Jersey, and later he was a part owner of 
East New Jersey, But because of the contentions in 
the Jerseys, the titles to land in those settlements were 
very uncertain, and Penn began to look toward the fair 
country west of the Delaware. 

At this time Charles II owed William Penn sixteen 
thousand pounds. Part of this money the king had bor- 
rowed from William's father, the admiral; ])art of it was 
the admiral's unpaid salary. There was little hope that 
the king would ever pay a penny of this debt in money, 
but when Penn offered to take a great tract of wild land 
in America instead of the money, Charles II readily 
agreed to the bargain. On the 4th of March, 1681, the 
king signed a charter giving to William Penn and his 
heirs forever a great tract of land lying west of the Dela- 
ware. Penn wanted to call his colony Sylvania, but the 
king named it Pennsylvania in honor of Admiral Penn. 

7. The ** Holy Experiment." — Thus Penn became the 
proprietor of Pennsylvania. This meant that he owned 
the land in the colony and that actual settlers must get 
the titles to their farms from him. It also meant that he 
could set up in his province any form of government he 
pleased, limited only by the terms of the charter which 
the king had given him. He made a very wise use of both 
powers. 

Penn advertised his colony widely and offered very at- 
tractive terms to the settlers. One liundred acres of land 
could be bought for ten dollars of our money. All the 



8 IIISTOR^■ OF" I'KXNSVLVANIA 

people were to have ])erfect liberty of conscience. They 
could believe and worship as they pleased. When these 
terms were known, emi,u;rants flocked to Pennsylvania in 
large numbers. 

By the terms of the charter the laws of Pennsylvania 
were to be made by William Penn with the aid and consent 
of the freemen of the colony. He at once drew up a con- 
stitution, or " Frame of (iovernment," as he called it, 
which gave the j)eople j)()\ver to govern themselves. The 
]ir()])rietor or his deputy was to be governor. The law- 
making body was to consist of two houses, a council and 
an assembly. The members of each house wxtc to be 
chosen by the people. Every man had the right to vote. 
In the first letter which Penn wrote to the people already 
living in Pennsylvania he said, " "^'ou shall be governed 
by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you 
will, a sober, industrious ])eople." 

These were new ideas in that age. But Penn was as 
far in advance of his time in his humanity as he was in his 
\iews of government and religion. At a time when there 
were two hundred ofl'enses punishable by death in England 
he had the number reduced to two, murder and treason, in 
Pennsylvania. I^nglish prisons were filthy dungeons 
whose inmates lived in idleness and vice. Penn made his 
prisons work houses for the reformation of offenders. 
His colony treated the Indians fairly, and first among 
American colonies raised its voice against human slavery. 

Penn said that he founded Pennsylvania in order to 
" serve his truth and people, and that an example may be 
set uj) to the nations." This example he called a " Holy 
Ivxperimcnt." Surely it was well named. 




WEST VIRGINik 

LaappHn Wrat I from Washm^lon 



CHAPTER II 
THE LAND 

8. Boundaries. — The charter in Avhich Charles II gave 
Pennsylvania to William Penn made the Delaware River 
the eastern boundary of the province, and said that it 
should extend westward five degrees in longitude. It 
was to be bounded on the south by " the beginning of the 
fortieth degree of Northern Latitude," and its northern 
limit was to be " the beginning of the three and fortieth 
degree of Northern Latitude." 

At the time Penn received this charter Delaware be- 
longed to the Duke of York, the brother of the king and 
the proprietor of New York. In 1682 the duke gave his 
rights in Delaware to Penn, who thus became the proprie- 
tor of " The Territories," as the three lower counties on 
the Delaware were called. A few years later these coun- 
ties were made into the separate province of Delaware, 
which belonged to Penn and his heirs until the Revolu- 
tion. 

Now, Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland, 
claimed that the entire peninsula between the Delaware 
and Chesapeake bays belonged to him. He also claimed 
that his charter made the fortieth degree of north lati- 
tude the northern boundary of his j^rovince. What did 
the expression " the beginning of the fortieth degree of 

In reading this chapter refer frequently to the map whii h arcompanii-s it. 

(9) 



THE LAND II 

Northern Latitude " in Penn's charter mean? Penn 
claimed that it meant the thirty-ninth parallel of north 
latitude. This would liave included the city of Balti- 
more in Pennsylvania. Lord Baltimore said that it 
meant the fortieth parallel of north latitude. This would 
have located Philadelphia in Maryland. Thus arose a 
boundary dispute between the Penns and the proprietors 
of Maryland w^hich lasted for two generations. 

In 1750 it was finally agreed that the boundary be- 
tween Delaware and ISlaryland should be a line up the 
centre of the peninsula, continued in a northerly direction 
until it touched a circle having a radius of twelve miles, 
with New Castle as a centre, and from thence due north 
to a parallel of latitude fifteen miles south of the southern- 
most point of Philadelphia. A line running due west 
from this point was to be the boundary between Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland. Between 1764 and 1767 two 
English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, 
located and marked this line. This southern boundary 
of Pennsylvania proved to be 39° 44' north latitude. It 
was called Mason and Dixon's line, and later was famous 
as the dividing line between the free and the slave states. 

This dispute with Lord Baltimore was not the only 
boundary controversy in Pennsylvania history. The 
people of Connecticut claimed that their charter of 1662 
gave them all that part of Pennsylvania which lies due west 
of their state. They made settlements in the beautiful 
Wyoming Valley near where Wilkes Barre now stands, and 
for years successfully resisted the efforts of Pennsylvania 
to drive them away. This contest is sometimes called 
the " Pennamite and Yankee War." It was not settled 



12 HISTORY OF PKNNSVLXANIA 

until after tlu- Kivolulion, ^^•lu•n a court of arbitration, 
provided for in the Articles of Confederation, decided that 
the land in disi)Ute belon^'ed to Pennsylvania. 

There was also some trouble ^vilh Xew York about the 
northern Ixnindary, and it was not until 1789 that it was 
at last established at the j)arallel of forty-two degrees 
north latitude. About this time Pennsylvania bought 
of till- Indians and of the United States Government the 
triangle north of this parallel which gives her the port 
of l'>ie. 

X'irginia claimed a part of western Pennsylvania, in- 
cluding the site of the city of Pittsburgh, and at one time 
exercised authority there. During the Revolutionary 
War it was decided that Penn's five degrees of longitude 
should be measured on Mason and Di.xon's line and not 
from the easternmost point in the state. This located 
tin- ]>resent wi-slern boundary of the state and ke])t the 
Pittsburgh region within its limits. 

Pennsylvania, with all its boundaries thus definitely 
settU'd, is about three hundred miles long and about one 
hundred and fifty miles wide, and contains a little over 
forty five thousand scjuare miles. 

9. Surface. Li-t us study the land in which Penn be- 
gan his " Holy Kxperiment." Two mountain ranges, 
the Blue Ridge and the .Mleghanies, sweep across Pennsyl- 
vania from northeast to southwest and (li\i(k' the state 
into three distinct natural divisions. Southeast of the 
Blue Ridge a range of lower and older hills stretches 
across the state. This range is called the South Moun- 
tain. Between it and the Blue Ridge lies the Great 
\'allev. It is to be noticed that this vallev is not confined 



THE LAND 13 

to Pennsylvania, but may be followed from New Jersey 
to northern Georgia. It has various local names. In 
Pennsylvania, west of the Susquehanna River, it is called 
the Cumberland Valley; east of that stream it is the 
Lebanon Valley. In Virginia it is the famous Shenandoah 
Valley. For beauty and fertility the Great Valley is un- 
surpassed. The corner of the state southeast of the South 
Mountain is a land of low hills and valleys. Much of 
it has a rich soil and everywhere it has attractive scenery. 

A mountain belt nearly one hundred miles wide stretches 
across the state between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany 
Mountains. This region is filled with long, even-crested, 
parallel mountain ridges which, in general, trend from 
northeast to southwest. These mountains have many 
local names. Here and there the creeks and rivers have 
cut notches or gaps which connect the deep, narrow val- 
leys between the ridges, and so make it easier for men to 
penetrate this wild and rugged land. The small valleys 
between the mountains are usually very fertile. 

The third natural division of Pennsylvania is that part 
of the great Alleghany plateau which extends from the 
summit of the Alleghany Mountains to the western 
border of the state. Much of this section seems moun- 
tainous to the traveler, but if we could sail over it in a bal- 
loon we should see that it is really a plateau in which the 
streams have carved deep valleys. Toward the west 
the country is less broken, and in the northwestern corner 
of the state the plateau merges into the plain which skirts 
Lake Erie. 

10. Rivers and Lakes. — Pennsylvania has lliree great 
rivers. The Delaware forms the eastern boundary of 



14 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

ihf >i.iu . A- it k-avc'S the j)icturcs(iuc scenery of its upper 
course this river widens into a noble pathway to the sea, 
alon<^ whicli tlie largest ships can pass from the port of 
Phila(lel|)hia. The Delaware has two fine tributaries, the 
Lehigh, which rushes down from the mountains, and the 
Schuylkill, which drains the splendid farm lands of the 
southeastern section of the state. 

Nearly one half of the state is drained by the Susque- 
hanna. Otsege Lake, in central Xew York, the scene of 
C(K)j)er's great story. "The Deerslayer," is the source of 
the main stream of this noble river, while its western 
branch cuts its way across the mountains from the up- 
lan<ls beyond tlie Alleghanies. The Susquehanna is a wide, 
shallow river filled with islands and broken by rapids. 
Conse(|uently it is of very little use for navigation. The 
Juniata, its chief tributary, is famed for the beauty of its 
valley. 

The C)hi() carries the water of western Pennsylvania to 
the distant Mississij)j)i. The two large branches of the 
Ohio, the .Mleghany and the Monongahcla, run in deep 
valleys, and are fed by countless smaller streams which 
make a web of waterways in this part of the state. In- 
deed, everywhere in Pennsylvania there are small streams, 
from the brooks, which come dashing and tumbling down 
the glens in the mountains, to tiu- creeks, that lazily 
meander their zigziig way through the pastures of the 
southeastern section of the state. 

The rivers and their valleys are the roads by which white 
men first in-netrated tin- interior of Pennsylvania. To-day 
our railroads follow the trails marked out along their 
b.ink^ by the j)ioneer. These rivers will play an even more 



THE LAND 15 

important part in our history in the future when their 
enormous water power is more fully harnessed to do the 
work of man. 

The southern limit of the great ice cap, which long ages 
ago covered the northern part of the earth's land, runs 
across Pennsylvania from east to west not far from the 
middle of the state. South of this line there are no lakes, 
but in that section of the state which lies north of it, and 
so was subject to the glacial influence, some small lakes 
are found. 

11. Natural Resources. — In a letter which Penn wrote 
at the time of his first visit to his colony he speaks of its 
sweet air and its serene sky. Though the climate of Penn- 
sylvania is not always so delightful as its proprietor 
thought, it is, in the main, healthful and invigorating, and 
the state is rich in all those natural resources which fit it 
to be the home of a happy and prosperous people. 

In the early days of its history the land was filled with 
wild game in great variety. Quail whistled in its meadows, 
grouse drummed in the woods, and at times great flocks of 
pigeons almost darkened the sky. Wild turkeys weighing 
forty pounds were not uncommon. The hunter had little 
trouble in finding a bear, a deer, or an elk. The beavers 
built their dams across the streams. Water fowl and 
small game were abundant. Trout, bass, and many 
other kinds of fish were found in all the streams, and every 
spring the shad came up the rivers in great numbers. 

Some of the mountainous section is unfit for agricul- 
ture, but a large part of the state is very fertile, and from 
the time of its first cultivation has produced hay, corn, 
wheat, oats, potatoes, orchard fruits, and dairy products 



I<> HISTOkV UF Pi:.\NSVL\ANlA 

in ^rcal (juantiliL-s and of the finest cjuality. When the 
t'lrst settlers came a mantle of dense forest covered nearly 
the entire state. The oak, chestnut, hickory, ash, beech, 
and |x)[)lar were common ivervAvhere. In some sections 
«^reat maj)les gave |)romise of toothsome maple sugar in 
days to come. In the n(jrthern and north^vestern parts 
of the state mighty forests of white pine and hemlock 
awaiti-d tlu- lumberman's ax. 

Such was the fair and goodly land which Penn beheld, 
but beneath its surface lay hidden a wealth of which he 
never dreamed. Of these vast mineral resources, coal is 
the most iniportanl. In the eastern and northeastern 
parts of the state are the fields of anthracite or hard coal. 
Bituminous or soft coal underlies nearly fifteen thousand 
s(|uare miles in western Pennsylvania. The northwestern 
section of the state was destined to be one of the great oil 
fields of the world, and where petroleum was found 
enormous ()uantities of natural gas were stored up in the 
earth. Iron ore was found in many places. Xor was 
this all. !,imestonc and cement rock were abundant. 
Then- was clay for hritk, sand for glass, and slate for roof- 
ing. Kaolin, grai)hite, soapstone, and phosphate rock 
have been found in smaller (|uantities. Few states have 
such a wealth and such a diversity of natural resources as 
has Pennsylvania. 

12. The Indians. The land, as Penn found it, was very 
sparsely iK'oi)led with Indians, who lived in little villages 
widely si-parated from one another, or wandered from 
I)lace to place in search of food. It has been estimated 
that there were iK)ssibly six thousand of these red men in 
Pennsylvania when the first white settlers arrived. Two 



THE LAND 17 

great Indian races were represented. The Lenape, or 
Delawares, who lived near the river of that name, and the 
Shawanese, who wandered in small bands over the state, 
belonged to the Algonquin stock. The fierce and warlike 
Iroquois, whose chief tribes dwelt in central New York, 
held nearly all the valley of the Susquehanna. 

From the beginning Penn treated the Indians with 
kindness and justice, and found them friendly and faith- 
ful in return. He paid them for the land, and soon after 
his arrival in the colony he met their chiefs under a great 
elm tree at Shackamaxon, now in Philadelphia, and there 
made with them the famous treaty of friendship which was 
" never sworn to and never broken." 

Penn's wise policy was followed for many years, and, as 
a consequence, the Quaker settlers lived at peace with the 
natives. Unfortunately, one of the founder's grandsons 
was less high minded than his grandfather. In 1737, 
while Thomas Penn was managing the colony, the in- 
famous " Walking Purchase " was made. Piece by piece 
the Indians had sold their land to the white men, and 
naturally were becoming uneasy as they saw their hunting- 
grounds turned into farms. In order to secure a particu- 
larly desirable bit of land the proprietor produced an old 
deed, by which it was claimed the Indians had given to 
Penn a plot of ground beginning at the Delaware River, a 
short distance above Trenton, running west to Wrights- 
town, thence northwest as far as a man could walk in a 
day and a half, and thence eastward to the Delaware. 
The walk had never been taken, but preparations were now 
made for it. With the route surveyed in advance and the 
underbrush cleared away, two picked men, trained for 



IIISIUKN Ol- I'ENNSYL\.\M.\ 



tilt i.uijK.M , Murecdt'd in ^'oinj^' about sixty miles through 
the \v(xm1s in tiic day and a half. Some Indians were 
present at tin- start, hut after repeatedly calling to the men 
to walk, not run. they left in disgust. To make a mean 
action worse, insti-ad of running the northern line of the 
purchase east to the river, the managers of the walk 
slanted it to the northeast and so included in the tract 
all the go<Kl land whi(h lluy coveted. 

This shameful action tended to make the Indians hate 
the white j)eoj)le. Though grateful for favors and faith- 
ful to their friends, the red men were vindictive and cruel 
to tlu-ir i-nc-mies. Some of the later settlers in Pennsyl- 
vania met the Indians in a very different spirit from that 
shown by the Quakers. As a result the story of the rela- 
tions between the two races in the central and western 
parts of thi- state during the later colonial period is, too 
often, a tale written in bhxxl. 



CHAPTER III 
THE SETTLERS 

13. The First Comers.— ;The Dutch, the Swedes, and 
the Enghsh were scattered in small numbers along the 
Delaware River for years before Pennsylvania was granted 
to Penn. In 1609 Henry Hudson entered Delaware Bay. 
A few years later a Dutchman, Captain May, whose name 
still lives in Cape May, explored the bay and river to 
the present site of Philadelphia. The Dutch, who were 
chiefly interested in the fur trade, claimed the South 
River, as they called the Delaware, and in 1623 Captain 
May built a fort on the New Jersey side where Gloucester 
now stands. A little later some Dutchmen established a 
trading station on the lower Schuylkill in order to control 
the rich beaver trade of its valley. 

The Swedes were the second European people to appear 
in the Delaware Valley. In 1638 they settled where 
Wilmington now stands, and during the following years 
their settlements extended northward into what is now 
Pennsylvania. As time passed more settlers came from 
Sweden, the patches of cleared land grew, grain and cattle 
were raised, fruit trees began to bear, and the tobacco 
crop and the beaver trade gave promise of commercial 
prosperity. But the Dutch at New Amsterdam were 
watching the Swedish settlers with a jealous eye, and in 
1655 their governor, Peter Stuyvesant, came to the Dela- 

(19) 



20 HlSTOkV Ul- I'KNNSVLXAMA 

ware with an (>vcr\vhL'lmin<^ force, and the Swedes surren- 
dered to him and became subjects of New Netherlands. 
In 1 064 the Kn^h'sh took Xew Amsterdam, and both the 
Hudson and Delaware valleys j)assed into their hands. 

From this time until Penn's arrival in America the little 
settlement within the j)resent limits of Pennsylvania grew 
very slowly. After 1O75 the (^)uakers began to come to 
VV'est Xew Jersey in considerable numbers, and a few of 
them made their homes on the west bank of the Delaware 
River. As soon as Penn was given a title to Pennsylvania, 
he sent his cousin, Colonel William Markham, to take 
|X)sscssion of the territory. Markham took the first 
steps toward estabh'shing a government and bought the 
Inst piece of land of the Indians. 

14. IV-nn's F-irst Visit.— Late in October, 1682, the 
good shij) Welcome, witli William Penn and seventy 
emigrants on board, arrived in the Delaware. Penn first 
set foot on Pennsylvania soil at the old Swedish settle- 
ment of Upland, which he i)romptly renamed Chester, in 
honor of his frii-nd Pearson, who came from the place of 
that name in Kngland. Penn soon went to the site which 
his agents had already selected for his capital. The place 
was well chosen. It was easily reached from the sea, 
and the valleys of llu' 1 )ilaware and the Schuylkill opened 
ways from it into the interior of the j)rovince. It was 
well suj)|)lie(l with timber, there was plenty of clay for 
making brick, and all about lay the finest of farming land. 

Duruig tjie next two years the proprietor w^as a very 
busy man. He gave much time and thought to planning 
the chief city of his colony, which he named Philadelphia, 
the city of " brotherly love." The assembly, or law- 



THE SETTLERS 21 

making body, met and passed such laws as were needed 
in the new colony. From the beginning the government 
of Pennsylvania was built upon the principles of religious 
liberty and political freedom. The first three counties 
of the state, Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, were laid 
out and organized. Lands were surveyed and settlers 
secured titles to their farms. Penn visited Baltimore, 
where he tried in vain to settle the disputed southern 
boundary line of his province. 

With all this work the time passed rapidly Penn made 
his home in Philadelphia in the little house which has 
been moved to, and is still preserved in, Fairmount Park, 
or at the mansion which had been built for him at Penns- 
bury in Bucks County. In 1684 business interests re- 
quired his return to England, and it was fifteen years 
before he saw Pennsylvania again. 

15. The Great Quaker Migration. — We have seen some- 
thing of the trouble which the Quakers faced in England 
because they tried to live and worship as they thought 
right. When their foremost man made it possible for 
them to secure homes in a new, free land beyond the sea, 
it is no w^onder that many of them decided to come to 
America. In 1682 twenty-three vessels brought nearly 
three thousand people to Penn's new colony, and the follow- 
ing year fifty ships came with settlers. A fertile soil and 
the prospect of peace and liberty continued to attract 
English Friends to Pennsylvania in considerable numbers 
until about 1 700. After that time most of the immigrants 
were of other races. 

Many of these early Quaker colonists were well-to-do 
people, who brought building materials, tools, furniture, 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

.iiui j.i.>\i>i<)ii> with llit-m. They encountered little of 
the extremi- hardship and sutTering which we find in the 
early history of Xirt^nnia and New England. Some 
of the (Quakers remained in Philadel])hia, while others 
s^'ltled uiMjn farms stretching along the Delaware from the 
neighl^)rhood of Trenton to Chester. The frontier line 
moved steadily back from the river, until ] )resently we hear 
of (Juaker meetings at Birmingham and Kennett, in 
Chester county. .\ few of the English settlers in Penn- 
sylvania were not (Quakers. Penn's charter contained a 
clause siiying that when twenty persons should petition 
fi)r a Church of England |)arish it could be established. 
CndiT this clause Christ Church was established in Phila- 
deli)hia in 1695. After Penn's death his sons were recon- 
ciled to the established church, and some of the most in- 
tluential citizens of Philadelj)hia during the later colonial 
IKTicMJ were Church of England men. 

Not all of the Quakers were Englishmen. Such names 
as .North Wales, Merion, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and 
Uwchlan sjX'ak of the Welsh origin of the people who set- 
tled these places. Thomas Lloyd, whom Penn left in 
charge when he sailed for England in 1 684, was the leading 
Welshman in early Pennsylvania history. 

Ireland, too, furnished its share of the early Quaker 
settlers. James Logan, who came as private secretary 
to Penn when the pr()j)rietor paid a second visit to his 
|)rovince in i^gg, was the foremost Irish Friend in colonial 
Pennsylvania. When IVnn returned to England for the 
last time he left Txjgan in chargi' of his interests in America, 
writing t(, him. " I have left thee in an uncommon trust 
with a singular dependence on Ihv justice and care." 



THE SETTLERS 23 

James Logan was worthy of the trust. For the next 
forty years he was the most influential man in political 
affairs in the province. He was also the most eminent 
scientist and man of letters in Pennsylvania before the 
days of Benjamin Franklin. 

The Quakers were not the only colonizers of Pennsyl- 
vania. Long before the end of the colonial era they ceased 
to be a majority of its population. But they were in 
control of its government until just before the outbreak 
of the Revolution, and their ideals of religion, society, 
and government have exerted a profound influence upon 
the life and thought of the state to the present time. 

16. The Pennsylvania Germans. — A large part of the 
settlers of Pennsylvania came from Germany. In the 
seventeenth century that country was broken up into 
many small states. The prince or ruler of each of these 
states had the right to choose either the Catholic, or the 
Lutheran, or the Reformed faith, and the church of his 
choice became the established church for his people, all 
of whom were legally bound to accept its teachings and 
worship according to its forms. If the prince changed his 
religion, all his people must change theirs. Then there 
were many Protestant sects in Germany the members of 
which were unwilling to accept the doctrines or worship 
of either of the two Protestant churches mentioned above. 
These sects were often harshly persecuted. During the 
first half of the seventeenth century Germany suffered 
terrible misery in the Thiry Years' War, and the Palatinate, 
as that part of the Rhine Valley is called from which many 
of the Pennsylvania Germans came, was wasted with 
fire and sword by the French in 1689. When they heard 



24 HISTORY OF PENN'SYU AXIA 

of IVnn's '* llolv I-lxinrimcnt," many of the German 
Protestants gladly turned tluir faces toward a land where 
they could enjoy peace and liberty of conscience. 

Francis Daniel Pastorius was the leader of the advance 
piard of the .^reat army of (lerman emiiJirants who came to 
Pennsylvania. His little band established (krmantown, 
which was for years tlie most imi)ortant (lerman settle- 
ment in the colony. Among the Germantown settlers 
were weavers, paper makers, and otlier artisans, and here 
the great Pi-nnsylvania industry of manufacturing had 
its birth. The earlitst (ierman emigrants belonged to 
tlu' jKTsecuted religious sects of whom we have spoken. 
The Pietists and Mennonites were the first comers, and 
settled in Germantown or pushed on up the Schuylkill 
\'alli-y. A little latc-r came the Dunkers, the Schwenk- 
feldirs, who settled on the Perkiomen, and the Moravian 
Brethren, who founded Bethlehem. These sectarians were 
a sim[)le, (|uii-t ])eople, whose ideas of life and of religion 
were largely in harmony with those of the Quakers. 
They had rather more than thi- ordinary education of their 
timi'. 

l-'rom tin- o])ening years of the eighteenth century until 
the outbreak of the Revolution the Germans flocked to 
PennsyKania in largt- numbiTs. Manv of the later 
German emigrants were called " Church People " by 
the sectarians who came first, that is, they belonged to 
one or the other of the two great Protestant churches in 
Germany, the Rcfornu'd and the Lutheran. Michael 
Schlatter was the great teacher and organizer of the 
Reformed Ghurch in Pennsylvania. The lAitherans had 
a nobU- leader in Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg. His son, 



THE SETTLERS 2$ 

Peter, was a gallant general in the Revolution, and another 
son, Frederick, was the first speaker of the national house 
of representatives. 

Most of the Quakers settled within thirty miles of Phila- 
delphia. The great tide of German migration swept past 
them and came to rest in a belt of territory more than 
fifty miles wide which sweeps across the state from the 
Delaware River to Mason and Dixon's line. The coun- 
ties of Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Lebanon, Lancas- 
ter, and York, and the upper parts of Montgomery and 
Bucks are the heart of this great German section of the 
state. 

Most of the German emigrants were very poor when 
they reached Pennsylvania, but they were sober, indus- 
trious, thrifty and frugal, and their condition rapidly 
improved. They wished to remain Germans, and clung 
tenaciously to the language, literature, and customs of 
their race. In the main they sympathized with the 
Quaker policy, and usually voted with the Friends until 
just before the Revolution. 

17. The Coming of the Scotch=Irish. — About seventy- 
five years before Pennsylvania was founded people from 
Scotland and the north of England began to settle in 
Ulster, as the northern part of Ireland is called. Nearly 
all of these settlers were Presbyterians in religion. This 
movement into Ireland was encouraged by King James I, 
of England, who hoped in this way to build up a Protestant 
population in that country that might after a time out- 
number and control its native Catholic inhabitants. At 
first these Presbyterian settlers in Ireland increased and 
prospered. Later they were much annoyed by petty 



a6 HISTORY OF PENNSVLN AXIA 

rdif^unis persc'cution, and still more l)y the unwise policy 
of Kn«?lan(l in laying heavy laxc-s on the flourishing linen 
and \V(x)len industries which they had developed in Ulster. 
During the first half of the eighteenth century large num- 
bers of Scotch Irish, as these people came to be called, 
emigrated to Anu-rica. A few of them went to New 
England, many settled in \'irginia and the Carolinas, but 
perha])s a majority of their number found homes in 
IVnnsylvania. 

Some of these people from the north of Ireland remained 
in eastern Prnnsylvania. We may be sure that any com- 
munity in that section of the state which has in it a Presby- 
terian church whose history runs back more than one hun- 
dred and fifty years was settled, in part at least, by the 
Scotch -Irish. Most of them, however, pushed on beyond 
the districts ()ccu])ied by the Quakers and the Germans to 
tlu' frontier in the central and southern parts of the 
state. The counties of Cumberland, Adams, and Frank- 
lin wiTe strongholds of Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism. 
The Scotch -Irish were fond of the free life of the frontier, 
and furnished a large ])roportion of the pioneers who 
won not only western Pennsylvania but the land beyond 
it from tlu- Indians and the wilderness. 

There could hardly be a greater contrast than that be- 
tween the ])eace-loving Quakers and Germans and the 
hard, stern, warlike Scotch-Irish. .\s frontiersmen they 
were rough, hot lu-aded, sometimes disorderly, but al- 
ways bra VI-. vigorous, aggressive, and steadfast. They 
hated and (lesj)ised the Indians and settled their disputes 
with them with the rille. For many years after the 
French and Indian War broke out in 1755 the frontier 



THE SETTLERS 27 

of Pennsylvania suffered fearfully from tlie Indians. 
The Scotch-Irish settlers bore the brunt of this suffering 
and did most of the hard fighting by which the red men 
were finally driven beyond the borders of the state. As 
a race the Scotch-Irish were hard workers, independent, 
religious, and strong believers in education. They must 
be assigned one of the foremost places among the makers 
of Pennsylvania. 

18. Pioneers from New England. — In an earlier chapter 
we have seen how Connecticut claimed the northern part 
of Pennsylvania and how people from that state took 
possession of the Wyoming Valley. Though Pennsyl- 
vania made good her title to the land, the settlers from 
Connecticut remained. They were not very numerous 
until about the beginning of the Revolution, but from 
that time pioneers from New^ England in ever-increas- 
ing numbers settled in the northern counties of Pennsyl- 
vania. They brought with them the choicest treasures 
of their home land, plain living, good government, strict 
morals, and a public school system. Life in northern 
and northwestern Pennsylvania has been largely shaped by 
the men and the ideals of New England. 

The makers of Pennsylvania were men of many races 
and many forms of rehgious faith. Each of these racial 
and rehgious groups tried to live its own life, preserve 
its own manners and customs, and to mingle as little as 
possible with the people outside its own circle. These 
facts have exerted a profound influence upon the history 
of the state. 



CHAPTER IV 
urn IN COI.ONIAL PENNSYLVANIA 

IV. Social Classes. I'hr colonists of Pennsylvania 
were of many races and differed widely in customs and 
idi-as, hut there was less real difference in social ]X)sition 
amonj^ them than almost anwhere else in America. 
One l(M)ks in vain for any class quite like the patroons of 
New York or the <j;reat planters of the South. Those 
descendants of the early settlers who acc|uired wealth 
constituted an u|)])er class. These families had resi- 
dences in Philadelphia and well-built country houses 
for the summer. Some of these fine old country homes, 
as Cliveden and Stenton, are still standing. 

Farmers who owned the farms which they tilled, busy 
sh<)|)ki-e|KTs in the towns, and skilled artisans and me- 
chanics made up the mass of the pojnilation. The mem- 
Ix'fs of this great middle class lived simply and worked 
hard. 

W'hili' free labor was the rule, there were bond ser- 
vants and slaves in the colony. The indentured white 
servants were more numerous than the slaves. Some of 
these servants were criminals or waifs from the streets 
of I^ondon, but a larger number were free men who bound 
themselves to work for several years in return for pas- 
sage to .America. Such ])ers()ns were called " redemp- 
lioners." U.sually they were well treated, and some of them 

(2a> 



LIFE IN COLONL\L PENNSYL\ANIA 29 

became good citizens after they had worked out their 
freedom. It must be said, however, that the indentured 
servants furnished many of the paupers and criminals of 
the colony. 

Negro slaves were never very numerous in Pennsyl- 
vania. They were found mainly in Philadelphia and its 
vicinity. Many of the Quakers were strongly opposed 
to slavery, and in 1 780 a law was passed which provided 
for the gradual wiping out of this evil. 

20. Industries and Commerce. — The great mass of 
the people of colonial Pennsylvania made a living by 
farming. The toil and skill of the Quaker and German 
settlers rapidly changed the unbroken forest land of the 
southeastern part of the province into the richest farming 
district in America. Grain and cattle were raised, gar- 
dens and orchards abounded, and everyAvhere the fertile 
soil richly repaid the labor expended upon it. 

Many articles of common use which we now buy were 
then made in the homes of the people. Grist-mills and 
saw-mills were early established. Richard Townsend, 
a Quaker who came with William Penn, says, " I set up 
a mill on Chester Creek which I had brought ready framed 
from London, which served for grinding of corn and saw- 
ing of boards, and was of great use to us." The mills in 
Pennsylvania were the best in the colonies, and Virginia 
sometimes sent grain to them to be ground. Ships were 
built in Philadelphia. The first furnace for smelting iron 
ore was started in 1720, and in 1750 three thousand tons 
of pig iron were exported. The manufacture of iron was 
forbidden by Act of Parliament. 

There were great merchants in Philadelphia, and many 



30 msroKV OF l'i:.\.\SVL\AMA 

shopkirjKTs in tliat cily as well as in the smaller i)laces. 
Lancaster and York were the chief inland towns. All 
roads led to Fhiladeli)hia, and along them trains of pack 
horses, and later " the ships of inland commerce," as 
the great Conestoga wagons drawn by six horses were 
called, carried the sury)lus ])roducts of the farms to the 
seajx)rt of the province, (xrain and Hour were the 
princii)al exports, but much lumber was sold and there was 
a valuabk- fur trade. The imports were wine, sugar, and 
manufaiturrd articles from I'^ngland. 

21. The Homes of the People. — At first, life in Pennsyl- 
vania was \ery simple and primitive. The settler began 
by building a log cabin and clearing a small patch of land. 
His fcKxl was grown on his own land, with game from the 
forest and fish from the streams. Time and hard work 
brought prosperity. The patch of cleared land grew to be 
a farm and the log cal)in was replaced by a better house. 
Though there was little luxury, there was soon rude com- 
fort and i)lenty. 

The thrifty and substantial ()uaker farmer built a brick 
house on his well-kept farm, lie liad a garden, an 
orchard, and some hives of bees. There was heavy 
furniture in his home, and often glassware, china, and 
fine linen. The (German farmers were equally indus- 
trious and still more careful in their attention to details. 
Dr. lienjamin Rush has left a pleasing picture of the pros- 
l)er()us, eighteenth century Pennsylvania Oerman farmers, 
with their " extensive fields of grain, full fed herds, lux- 
urious meadows, orchards promising loads of fruit, to- 
gether with si)acious barns and commodious stone dwell- 
ing houses." 



LIFE IN COLONIAL PENNSYLVANIA 31 

These old time homes, with their great open fireplaces 
and sanded floors, were hives of industry. In them all the 
food of the family was prepared and nearly all of its 
clothing was made from flax and wool grown on the farms. 
The colonists had few amusements, but they were far 
more neighborly than people are now, and they helped 
each other in harvesting and corn husking and at quilt- 
ings and barn-raisings. These " bees," as they were 
called, were social events and were enjoyed to the full 
by the young people. The weddings were the great 
festivals of the time and at them there was much feasting 
and sometimes too much drinking. Even the funerals 
were occasions for feasting. 

People seldom traveled far from home in colonial days. 
When they did, they rode on horseback or took one of the 
stage coaches which ran between the principal towns. 
Wayside taverns with swinging signs cared for travelers 
and for the teams and teamsters who carried on the in- 
land commerce of the colony. 

22. On the Frontier. — Though the counties near Phila- 
delphia early became the scene of a prosperous settled 
life, Pennsylvania had a wild frontier until after the 
Revolution. The long period of freedom from Indian 
attack, due to Penn's wise policy, had quickened the west- 
ern movement of population. All through the later 
colonial time the adventurous Scotch-Irish were pushing 
the advance line of settlements ever deeper into the wilder- 
ness of the central part of the province. In the cabins of 
these mountain valleys there was growing up a race of 
hardy frontiersmen whose long rifles were to help win 
the western section of the state from the red men. 



32 IIISTURV OF PEXXSVLNAMA 

I-'or a lon.t; linu- the Indians had been growing rest- 
le>s, and when tlie great struggle between France and 
Kngland for tiie iK)ssession of America, which we call 
tin- Freiuh and Indian War, broke out in 1755 they could 
no longer be controlled by peaceful measures. After 
the disiistrous failure of Braddock's expedition against 
Fort Du Quesne the storm of Indian war broke in all its 
furv u|M)n the intire Pennsylvania frontier. The scat- 
tered .settlers in the valleys of the Juniata and the upper 
Susqui'hanna fell first. Then the Indian scalping parties 
broki- through the gaps of the Blue Ridge and ravaged 
with torch and tomahawk the outlying settlements of 
Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton counties. 

The government sought to defend the settlements by 
building frontier forts to command the passes through 
the mountains. Before the war ended there were nearly 
two hundred of these stockades and block-houses guarding 
the frontier from the Delaware River to the ?klaryland line. 
Sometimes the .settlers lived in these forts for months, 
going out by day with guns in their hands to work in their 
fields. .After Fort Du Quesne fell into the hands of the 
Fnglish in lyscS the Indians were quieted for a time and 
many settlers returned to their abandoned homes. In 
I 763 Ponliac united the Indians in a great conspiracy, and 
once more swarms of marauding savages wasted the entire 
border west of the Sus(|uehanna and captured some of 
the frontier forts. The ne.xt year Colonel Bouquet led an 
exiK'dition which penetrated as far as the wilderness of 
Ohio, and made tin- Indians sue for peace and give up 
the captives they had taken. 

23. TI1C Oovernment.— We have seen the nature of the 



LIFE IN COLONIAL PENNSYLVANIA 33 

" Frame of Government " which Penn drew up in 1682 
(section 7). Because the people were dissatisfied with this 
constitution the proprietor gave them a new one in 1701. 
The first clause in this new " Charter of Privileges " 
allowed all religions to exist in Pennsylvania on terms of 
perfect equality. The proprietor or his deputy was to 
be the governor. The governor appointed a council 
which advised and assisted him, but had no legislative 
power. The laws were made by an assembly, consisting 
of four or more men from each county, elected yearly by 
the people. All the judges were appointed by the gov- 
ernor. There were local justices of the peace, a county 
court of quarter sessions, and a supreme court, composed 
of a chief justice and three judges. Some county officers 
were appointed by the governor, others were elected by 
the people. Pennsylvania was governed under this con- 
stitution for three-quarters of a century. 

William Penn died in 1718 and there was much trouble 
among his sons about his will. Finally, his sons, John, 
Thomas, and Richard, were recognized as the proprietors. 
Thomas and John, the son of Richard, were the sole 
proprietors at the outbreak of the Revolution. Sir Wil- 
liam Keith, James Logan, and John Penn are the best 
known of the many provincial governors of Pennsylvania. 
The younger Penns and their deputies, the governors, 
had frequent disputes with the colonists and with the 
assembly. The effort to tax the great landed estates 
owned by the Penns and the payment of quit rents, as 
the small sums which land owners in the province were 
expected to pay to the proprietors were called, caused 
most of these quarrels. These disputes seem petty 



^4 IllsrORV OF PENNSVLN ANIA 

t-nou^'li now, inil thcv hd])efl to train the colonists in self- 
government. The (Quakers, with whom the Germans 
usually voted, controlled the assembly for a long time. 
Thev lost this control durinic the Indian troubles described 
in the last section, because of their refusal to support 
measures for the defence of the frontier, and never after- 
ward regained their former political power. 

24. I he Intellectual Life of the Province. — Pioneers 
who are giving their lives to the heavy task of clearing 
the land cannot be expected to pay much attention to 
science and literature, and yet the intellectual life was not 
altogether neglected in colonial Pennsylvania. The pas- 
tors of many of the German and Scotch-Irish churches 
were educated men who did much to keep learning alive 
among their people. The services of the heroic frontier 
l)reachers in |)reventing the backwoodsmen from relapsing 
into barbarism cannot be overestimated. The Mora- 
vians, Count von Zinzendorf and David Zeisberger, were 
successful in missi(jnary work among the Indians. 

The first sch(Jols in the valley of the Delaware were 
ojK'ned by the Swedes and the Dutch. When the Quakers 
settled in Philadelphia the government of the colony 
made a few attempts to start schools, but little came of 
them beyond the establishment of a public grammar 
sch(K)l, which still exists in the famous William Penn 
Charter School in Philadelphia. Education was left 
to the churchy and many of the (}erman sects, the Friends 
.Mietings, and the Presbyterian churches opened element- 
ary sch(K)ls. .\ teacher in one of these schools, Christopher 
Dock, "tin- pious schoolmaster of the Ski])pack," wrote 
the rir>t book on school teaching ever pul)lished in America, 



LIFE IN COLONI.\L PENNSYLVANIA 35 

Soon academies of a higher grade began to be founded. 
One of the most influential of these higher schools was 
the " Log College " at Neshaminy, Bucks county, 
established in 1726 by the Rev. William Tennant. Almost 
equally noted was the New London Academy, in Chester 
county, opened in 1741 by Dr. Francis Alison. Three 
signers of the Declaration of Independence and several 
other eminent men were educated in this school. There 
were about twenty such academies in the province in 1776. 
The University of Pennsylvania grew out of a school 
established in Philadelphia in 1749, and enlarged and 
called a college in 1755. Its early success was due to 
the ability, scholarship, and energy of its first provost. 
Dr. William Smith. 

From the beginning the noble profession of medicine was 
ably represented in the colony. Dr. Thomas Cadwalader 
wrote one of the earliest medical books published in 
America, and was one of the first physicians appointed 
to the hospital founded in Philadelphia in 1750. A 
course of lectures by Dr. William Shippen led to the 
starting of the medical college which afterward became a 
part of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Benjamin 
Rush should be mentioned with these able and far-sighted 
men. Philadelphia has been a famous centre of medical 
education since their day. 

Pennsylvania was noted among the other colonies for 
the strength of its bench and its bar. Andrew Hamilton 
was the first American lawyer who had more than a local 
reputation. When Peter Zenger, the editor of a New York 
newspaper, was cast into prison because he dared to criti- 
cize the governor of that colony, Andrew Hamilton was 



HISTORY nr PENNSYLVANIA 

MHiiiiionid in huAv lioni Pliilack'li:)hia to defend the ri.^ht 
of free s|H.-eeh and of a free press. He secured Zenker's 
ae(juitlal in a great sjjcech in w iiich he declared : " It is 
not the cause uf a iK)()r jjrinter, nor of New York alone, 
which the jury is now trying. It is the cause of liberty!" 

The jjrinling }>ress came to Pennsylvania almost as early 
as the first settlers. An almanac was published in Phila- 
delj)hia in 1OS5. In 17 19 Andrew Bradford started the 
first newspai)er in the colony. Ten years later Benjamin 
Franklin began the publication of a better paper, The 
Pennsylvania Gazette. Christopher Sower of German- 
town j)ubnsiic(l a newspaper which circulated widely 
among the Germans. Sower also printed the Bible in 
German many years before an English Bible was pub- 
hshc-d in .Vmcrica. Books of a religious character were 
printed at a j)eculiar settlement of German sectarians 
known as the Monastery of Ephrata, in Lancaster county. 
The first Sabbath-school in America was held in this 
Ej)hrata community. 

Pennsylvanians early showed a marked interest in 
scienci'. John liartram was the father of American 
lx)tany. Dasid Rittenhouse enjoyed a world-wide repu- 
tation as an astronomer. But before all others as a 
scientist stands the most celebrated man who ever li\'ed 
in Pcnnsyhania, one of the greatest men that America 
has j)ro(kRV(l, the many sided Benjamin Franklin. 

25. The Greatest Pcnnsylvanian. Born in Boston in 
1706, Benjamin Franklin came to Philadelphia at the age 
of seventeen, utterly unknown, and with only a dollar in 
his ix)cket. But he- had versatile talents, high ambition, 
and habits of industry. Ik soon found work at his trade 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



38 HISTORY (JF PENNSYLVANIA 

as a i)rinlrr, and later established a printini^ olVcc of his 
own. In addition to editing,' The Pcnnsylvauia Gazette, 
he Ix'gan in i -,},2 to publish an almanac. The shrewdness 
and humor of this imblication .i^^ave it immense popmarity 
as " I'(H)r Richard's Almanac." Franklin's industry, 
thrift, and frui^^ality soon brou«.,dit him j)rosperity, and at 
the earlv a.^e of forty-two he retired from business with 
a ctJmjK'tence. 

Franklin's fame as an editor and man of letters is sur- 
passed by his renown as a scientist. He was deeply in- 
terestid in evi-rythint^^ practical and made many inven- 
tions, tile most noted of which is the Franklin stove or 
Pennsylvania fireplace, which has scarcely been excelled 
for heatinj^ and ventilating; pur|K)ses. He was a profound 
student of electricity, and it was his experiment with a 
kite- by which he proved the electrical nature of lightning 
that won him a world-wide reputation as a man of science. 
He also did very useful work as a founder of institutions. 
The Pennsylvania Hospital, the Philadelphia Library, the 
.•\merican Phil()soj)hical Society, and the University of 
Pennsylvania all owe their origins in large measure to his 
elYorts. 

Franklin larly entered |K)litical life and held many 
imi)ortant |)ul)lic ix)sitions. He was j^ostmaster of 
Philadelphia, and later the head of the postal system for 
all the colonies. He was sent as a commissioner from 
Pinnsylvania to the Albany Congress in 1754, where 
he pro]x)sed a Plan of Inion for the colonies which re- 
si-mblcd in many resjx.Tts the form of union adopted more 
than twi-nty years later. He rendered valuable service 
in ^ci nring wagons and packhorses for Braddock's expe- 



LIFE IN COLONIAL PENNSYLVANIA 39 

dition. He became the leader of the provincial assembly, 
and during the last ten years before the Revolution he 
represented Pennsylvania and several of the other colonies 
in England. 

When Benjamin Franklin came home at the outbreak of 
the war he was nearly threescore years and ten, and could 
look back over a long life rich in good works. But the 
most glorious period of his career was yet to come. He 
was destined to render a still more splendid public service 
in helping to win the independence and organize the gov- 
ernment of a new nation. 



CHAPTER V 
PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 

2(i. rolitical Conditions in 1763.- Al llic close of the 
Fr-ikIi and Indian War (iivat lirilain came into posses- 
sion of all ihal i)art of North America east of the Missis- 
sii)|)i River. At the same time her |X)wer in India was 
i^'rowin.i^' rapidly. This vast expansion of territory brought 
with it new duties and seemed to make necessary a new 
jx)licy toward the colonies. In attem])ting to carry out 
this jjoiicy the English Government tried to do three things 
which it had never done before, namely, to enforce the 
navigation acts, to maintain a standing army in America, 
and to tax the colonists to help pay for keeping the troops 
in lluir country. The attempt to do these three things 
cau.sed the Revolution. 

The jxililical conditions which existed in Pennsylvania 
at this time tended to promote the growth of a desire for 
changi- in that pn)vince. The (lermans and the Scotch- 
Irish of till- Sus(|uehanna Valley had little affection for 
Knghind, and differed widely in race and religion from the 
(Quakers who controlled the government up to this time. 
Because of better facilities for trans])()rtation the settlers 
of the central part of the state had closer commercial ties 
with Baltimore than with Philadelphia. They felt that 
they were governi'd unjustly because some of the counties 
in the east had more members of the assembly than they 

(lO) 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 41 

were entitled to by the taxes they paid, while every county 
throughout the west had less. The men of the frontier 
hated the provincial government, because they felt that it 
had not vigorously supported them when they were at- 
tacked by the Indians. In Philadelphia a high property 
qualification kept the small tradesmen and mechanics from 
voting and gave political power to the rich merchants and 
lawyers. There was great discontent with this condition. 
In a word, the later provincial government of Pennsyl- 
vania was aristocratic, while a strong democratic feeling 
was growing among the people. The ruling classes op- 
posed the tax laws of England it is true, but many of 
them did not carry their opposition to the point of rebellion 
against the mother country. The lower classes of the 
city and the people of the inland counties made up the 
mass of the patriot party which fought the war to a finish. 

27. The Growth of Causes. — The first step in the Brit- 
ish policy of taxing the colonies was the passage of the 
Stamp Act in 1765. This act imposed a tax on all legal 
documents, and even newspapers and almanacs had to be 
printed on stamped paper. Pennsylvania firmly resisted 
the enforcement of this law in much the same spirit as the 
other colonies, but without resorting to the violent methods 
used in some of them. John Dickinson, a brilliant young 
lawyer of Philadelphia, led the Pennsylvania delegation in 
the Stamp Act Congress, and wrote the ringing declaration 
of rights adopted by that body. Nowhere was the news 
of the repeal of the hated act received with greater joy 
than in Philadelphia. 

When repealing the Stamp Act England had asserted 
her right to tax the Americans as she pleased, and in 1767 



42 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

she im]K)Sccl dulics on all imix)rts of glass, paper, paints, 
and tea. Again all America i)rotcstcd. The merchants 
of Pennsylvania joined those of the other colonies in agree- 
ments not to inii)<)rt English goods. Everywhere the 
obnoxious laws were denounced from the platform, and 
the i)ress i)oure(l forth a Hood of argument against them. 
It was at this time that John Dickinson wrote the famous 
" Li'tttTs of a Pennsylvania Farmer," which in literary 
merit and intluence uj)on events surpass all the other 
writings of the Revolutionary era. In the Farmer's Let- 
ters Dickinson j)roves that the English taxes are illegal, 
pleads for a firm and fearless opposition to them, but 
urges that such o])jxjsition be peaceful and legal. The 
s|)len<iid service which he rendered in this crisis and his 
vast inlluence in shaping the course of the Revolution 
place John Dickinson among the foremost sons of Penn- 
sylvania. 

The storm of j)rotests from .\merica and the appeals of 
English merchants, whose American trade had greatly 
fallen olT because of the refusal of the colonists to buy 
their goods, induced Parliament to repeal all of the offend- 
ing ta.xes except that on tea. Instead of establishing the 
j)rinci|)le of the right to ta.x the colonies, as England had 
h()|)e(l it might, the retention of the tea tax only increased 
the e.xasjx^ration in America. Smuggling increased and 
the elTorts of the English to stop it were resisted by force. 
.Much tea was drunk in Pi-nnsylvania during the next 
few years, but very little of it paid the duty. 

The F^nglish Government could not understand that the 
Americans were contending for a princij)le, not for a paltry 
sum of money. In 1773 it tried to make the colonial 




JOHN DICKINSON. 



44 HlSnJkV ol PKNXSYLVANIA 

tea tax acceptable by rtmitlin.C!; the duty on tea which had 
to l)e paid when it arrived in Enghmd on its way to Amer- 
ica. .\i\vv this, tea which hiid j)aid the (hity in America 
could be sold cheajXT than that smuggled into the country. 
Still the .\mericans would not buy it. Cargoes of tea were 
sc-nt to various American ])orts. When it was known that 
one of them was coming to Philadelphia a public meeting 
in that city declared that i'nyone who aided in unloading 
or selling the tea would be an enemy to his country. 
News of the Boston Tea Party caused much rejoicing, 
and when a tea ship came up the Delaware it was stopped 
below Philadelphia and warned not to come nearer. 
The ca])tain of the ship was permitted to visit the city 
and judge for himself whether it would be prudent to 
try to land the tea. He promptly decided to return at 
on( (• to I'Jigland with his cargo untouched. 

I-^arl)- in i 774 the news came that England had punished 
Boston for the Tea Party by closing its port. ^lassachu- 
sc-tts must submit or rebel. If she rebelled, would she have 
the sup|M)rt of her sister colonies? Presently Paul Revere 
came to Philadelphia to ask this cjuestion of Pennsylvania. 
.\ mass meeting made it clear that, in spite of some oppo- 
sition, Pennsylvania would act with the other colonies in 
resisting England. A committee was appointed in Phila- 
dcli>hia to corresi)on<l with similar committees in the 
counties, and later delegates were chosen from each county 
to a j)rovincial congress, which urged the assem])ly to ap- 
|K)int deputies to a general congress of all the colonies. 

28. Ihc Opening Scenes of the Revolution.— The first 
Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall, Philadel- 
phia, Sej)ti-mbfr 5. 1774. Pennsylvania was represented 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 45 

in it by John Dickinson, Joseph Galloway, the leading 
lawyer of Philadelphia, Samuel Rhoades, a wealthy and 
public spirited Quaker, Thomas Mifflin, later a general in 
the army, John Morton and Charles Humphries, promi- 
nent farmers living near the city, and Edward Biddle, of 
.Reading, and George Ross, of Lancaster, both lawyers of 
high reputation. The other colonies had sent their 
strongest men. Here were the Adamses from Massachu- 
setts, the Livingstons of New York, the Rutledges of 
South Carolina, and Patrick Henry and George Wash- 
ington from Virginia. The Congress promptly adopted a 
Declaration of Rights, sent a petition to the king, pub- 
lished addresses to the colonists, to the Canadians, and 
to the people of England, and formed an association 
pledged not to import or to use merchandise from Great 
Britain. The state papers issued by this Congress are 
among the noblest in the English language. Daniel 
Webster said of them, " If you want to love your country, 
master the contents of these immortal papers, and be- 
come imbued with their sentiments." The petition to 
the king and the address to the people of Canada were 
penned by John Dickinson. 

Late in October the Continental Congress finished its 
work and its members took their departure from what 
John Adams called " the happy, the peaceful, the elegant, 
the hospitable, and the polite city of Philadelphia." The 
winter which followed was an anxious one. Many of the 
colonies began to prepare for war. Pennsylvania still 
hoped that war might be avoided. In January, 1775, 
a second provincial congress held in Philadelphia voted 
to seek the restoration of American rights by all peaceable 



40 



IIISTOKV OF rENNSYLN ANIA 



mcasuivs before takin.L,^ up arms. After the fight at 
Lexington and Concord a more warhke spirit began to 
rise. Everywhere in the province people began " to 
associate for the purjx)sc of defending with arms their 
lives, their fortunes, and their liberty." 

It was at this crisis that the second Continental Congress 
met in the State House in Philadelphia on May lo, 1775. 
Pennsylvania had chosen the same delegates she sent in 
1774, but Rhoades and Galloway were excused from 
siTving, and Thomas Willing, of Philadelphia, and James 
Wilson, of Cumberiand, took their places. Just at this 
time Franklin came home after a ten years residence in 
England. He was received with enthusiasm and imme- 
diately added to the Pennsylvania delegation in Congress. 
He had urged moderation and done everything in his power 
to settle the fjuestion in dispute, but he now threw all his 
great inlluence on the side of resistance to British tyranny. 
The Continental Congress at once became a national 
government for the united colonies. It adopted the army 
about l^oston and aj)pointed Washington its commander- 
in-chief. It called for more troops, and Pennsylvania 
at once responded with more than her share. 

The resort to armed resistance to England made it 
necessary for the |)eo])le of Pennsylvania to take sides. 
A few of them had supported England from the first. 
Many men of wealth and social position had opposed the 
British colonial [)olicy, but now refused to support a war 
that seemed likely to lead to independence. Joseph 
Cialloway is the best type of this class of Tories. The 
Quakers and some of the Germans were opposed to w^ar 
from j)rinci])le. Some of the younger Friends entered 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 47 

the American army and were disovv'ned by the Society. 
The great mass of the Friends were opposed to the British 
policy, but refused to take any part in the war. All 
the Scotch-Irish and most of the Germans were devoted 
to the American cause, and these people furnished the 
greater part of the Revolutionary soldiers of the state. 

Meanwhile revolutionary organizations were growing up 
in the state. Some of the more prudent leaders, like 
Dickinson, knowing that the people were gradually com- 
ing over to their side, wanted to move slowly, but this 
did not suit the more violent Whigs, who secured the ap- 
pointment of a "Committee of Public Safety " and made 
Franklin its president. This committee urged forward 
the raising of troops and began to build a state navy. 

29. Independence Declared. — Washington expressed the 
prevalent feeling in America at the outbreak of the war in 
these words, " When I took command of the army I 
abhorred the idea of independence." Within a year he 
had become convinced that nothing but independence 
would save the country, and this opinion was shared by 
a majority of his countrymen. There were several causes 
for this change of sentiment in America. Congress had 
petitioned the king for a last time and he had not even 
noticed their prayer. The employment of Hessian sol- 
diers by the British Government had greatly angered the 
colonists. New state governments were being formed and 
in the Congress the states had a real national government. 
War was being waged against England and the people 
were coming to see that they could no longer profess 
loyalty to a king against whom they were fighting. Jusc 
at this time Thomas Paine published in Philadelphia a 



48 IILSTOKV or riONNSVlA AMA 

I)iimi)hlct called " Common Sense," which set forth the 
reasons for indejiendence in simple and "flowing words. 
It was read evcr)'where and exerted a profound inilucnce 
U|H)n the ])e<)ple. 

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced in 
Congress his immortal resolution, " That these United 
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent 
stales." After three days' debate this resolution was post- 
]X)ned for three weeks. During the spring and early 
summer of 1776 most of the colonies instructed their 
delegates to vote for independence. Pennsylvania was 
one of the slowest of the states in taking this action. Its 
assembly was oi)]X)sed to independence, but late in June 
a state convention instructed the delegates in Congress 
to favor it. July ist, when Lee's resolution was voted on 
in committee, Pennsylvania opposed it by four to three. 
The next day, when the final vote was taken, John Dickin- 
son and Robert Morris, who had voted against the reso- 
lution because they thought the time was not yet ripe for 
it, remained at home, thus allowing Franklin, Wilson, 
and Morton, against Willing and Humphries, to give 
the voti- of the state for independence. 

The i)assing of Lee's resolution was the real act of in- 
dependence. On the fourth day of July the Declaration 
of ln(le|)endence, in which Jefferson set forth the causes 
of the se])arati()n from England, was adopted. A few 
days later the Declaration was read in the State House 
yard and the great bell in Independence Hall, as the 
State House was henceforth to be called, pealed forth 
"liberty throughout the land." Later the Declaration 
was engrossed ujK)n i)archment, and on August 2d it 



PENNSYL\ANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 49 

was signed by the members of Congress. In the mean- 
time several changes had taken place in the delegation 
from Pennsylvania. The signers from this state were 
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, 
John INIorton, George Clymer, James Smith, George 
Taylor, James Wilson, and George Ross. 

30. The War in Pennsylvania. — There was no fight- 
ing upon the soil of Pennsylvania until 1777. In Decem- 
ber, 1776, Washington's army camped for a short time in 
Bucks county, and it was from there that he struck his 
daring and successful blows at Trenton and Princeton. 
Fifteen hundred Pennsylvania militia under Cadwalader 
and Ewing responded to Washington's call for help in 
this campaign. 

In 1777 Howe determined to take Philadelphia. As 
he dared not attack Washington in his strong position in 
New Jersey, the British general sailed with his troops from 
New York to Chesapeake Bay. After the British fleet 
put to sea Washington moved his army nearly to Phila- 
delphia and waited anxiously for news of Howe's destina- 
tion. When he heard that the British had landed at 
Elkton and were advancing toward Philadelphia, Washing- 
ton marched through that city, hurried southward into 
Delaware, and threw his army in front of the invaders. 
After some skirmishing he withdrew into Pennsylvania, 
posted his force in a strong position at Chadd's Ford, on 
the Brand y^vine, and awaited the British attack. 

The British spent the night before the battle at Kennett 
Square. On September nth the Hessians, under Knyp- 
hausen, advanced to Chadd's Ford and attacked the Ameri- 
cans; while the larger part of the army, under Howe and 



50 HisruKY or ri:.\\svL\ ama 

C'ornwallis, marched to the north and cast, crossed the 
Brandywinc aljovc Washington's position, and threat- 
ened liis Hank and rear. The British army numbered 
eighteen thousand men. Washington had about eleven 
thousand. The larger part of the American force was 
at Chadd's Ford, while strong detachments guarded the 
fords higher uy) the stream. When Washington learned 
that Howe was ai)proaching his right flank he ordered 
these detachments to form in line of battle facing the 
Ikitish, which they did near the Birmingham ]Meeting 
House. Here the fiercest fighting of the battle of the 
Brandywine took place. Though resisting stubbornly, 
the Americans were outnumbered and driven from the 
fiekl. La Fayette was wounded while trying to rally 
the troojjs. Greene came up with reinforcements and 
gallantly held the enemy in check, while the remainder of 
the American army withdrew. Wayne, who had been fac- 
ing the Hessians at Chadd's Ford, now fell back and the 
entire army retreated to Chester. The British camped 
uiK)n the field which they had won. 

The news of this battle caused great consternation in 
Philadel})hia. The state government removed to Lan- 
caster and Congress fled to York. Washington with- 
drew his trooj)s to Philadel])hia, and, after giving them a 
day's rest, advanced once more to face the British. To 
take Philadelphia Howe must cross the Schuylkill where 
it could be forded, as there were no bridges. He was ad- 
vancing toward Swedes Ford, now Norristown, when he 
was confronted by the American army at the Warren 
Tavern, about twenty miles west of Philadelphia. A heavy 
rainstorm wet the ammunition of both armies and pre- 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 



51 



vented a battle. Washington withdrew to the northern 
part of Chester county, where he detached Wayne with a 
strong force to watch the British army and delay it in any 
way that offered until the Americans could take position 
to dispute the passage of the fords of the Schuylkill. 
W^ayne posted his force between the Warren and the Paoli 




taverns, observed the movements of the British, and re- 
ported them to Washington. Wayne thought that General 
Howe knew nothing of his position, but a Tory had told 
the British leader the number of Wayne's force and accu- 
rately described his camp. A British force twice as large 
as Wayne's was sent to take him by surprise in a night 
attack. The British came on silently in the darkness, 



52 HISTORY DF PKNXSVUA.NIA 

bayoneting the pickets as they met them, until they v/crc 
so near the camp that when at last an alarm was given 
the Americans were aroused by the cry, "Up, men! the 
British are upon you." Many of Wayne's men were 
killed anrl the rest were routed. This affair occurred 
near the present borough of Malvern, but is known as the 
Paoli massacre. 

After some manoeuvring Howe crossed the Schuylkill 
and entered Philadelphia. But in order to hold the city 
he must take the American forts below it, which kept his 
ships from coming up the river. Part of his force at once 
undertook this task. This encouraged Washington to 
attack the main British army which was in camp at 
(iermantown. The attack was well planned, but a small 
company of English soldiers in the Chew house delayed 
the main division, a heavy fog confused the other de- 
tachments, and finally Washington was obliged to retreat, 
which he did in good order. 

F(jrts Mercer and Mifilin, which commanded the Dela- 
ware below Philadelphia, were held by the Americans for 
six \\'eeks, and it was only after some of the most desperate 
and furious fighting of the whole war that the British 
were able to take them, and thus bring their ships up to 
the city, where Howe settled for the winter. Washington 
went into winter cjuarters at Valley Forge on the Schuyl- 
kill, where he could easily watch the British. 

The fortitude in suffering and devotion to a great cause 
there dis|)layed make Valley Forge the most sacred his- 
toric shrine in America. Huts afforded a poor shelter, 
clothing was lacking, and sometimes there was little less 
than a famine in the camp. The meii were sick by thou- 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 53 

sands and hundreds of them died . The mismanagement of 
the government, not the poverty of the country, caused 
this dreadful suffering. " Hogsheads of shoes, stockings, 
and clothing were lying at different places along the roads 
and in the woods, perishing for want of teams or of money 
to pay the teamsters." Yet this bitter experience did 
not weaken the patriotism of these heroic men. Wash- 
ington wrote, " We cannot enough admire the incompar- 
able patience and fidelity of the soldiery." It was the 
same high sense of duty which enabled him to thwart 
the plotters of the Conway Cabal w^ho sought to drive 
him from his position at the head of the army. It was 
at Valley Forge that Baron Steuben did his great work of 
drilling and organizing the troops. When the British 
abandoned Philadelphia and retired toward New York in 
June, 1778, and Washington followed in hot pursuit, he 
led a better army than he had ever before commanded. 
The only fighting in Pennsylvania after the British with- 
drew was on the frontier. In 1778 a force of Tories and 
Indians invaded the Wyoming Valley. ^lany of the 
settlers collected at Forty Fort, near the present site of 
Kingston, and, led by Colonel Zebulon Butler, made a 
heroic fight against superior numbers. Most of them were 
killed in the battle or tortured to death by the Indians 
afterward. All the people who could escape fled from 
the valley, while the Indians plundered and burned their 
homes. The entire western frontier of the state suffered 
terribly from the tomahawk and the scalping knife. In 
1779 General Sullivan led an expedition from Easton by 
way of the Wyoming Valley to central New York, where he 
defeated the Indians and destroyed many of their vil- 



54 HISTOkS' OF rKWSVLX'ANIA 

la^C'S. TIh- Indian oulrat^cs on the frontier continued, 
howi'vcr. until after the close of the Revolution. 

31. Pennsylvania Soldiers in the Revolution. -The sons 
of Pennsylvania did their full share in fighting the battles 
of the War for In(lej)endence. The outbreak of the war 
found tlu' state without a militia law or any organized 
military force. Early in 1775 the assembly, at the rec|uest 
of the committee of correspondence of Philadelphia, 
authorized the formation of volunteer military associa- 
tions throughout the state. The " Associators," as these 
minute-men were called, soon numbered forty-three hun- 
dn-d and wrre organized into llfty-three battalions. Early 
in 1 777 the militia of the state w^as thoroughly reorganized 
and j)lace(l under the command of brigadier-generals 
John .Armstrong, John Cadwalader, James Potter, James 
Irvine, and Samuel Meredith. Many of the Pennsyl- 
vania militia companies saw active service in the cam- 
paigns in their own state and in New Jersey. 

In June, 1775, Congress determined to raise a Conti- 
nental army. Pennsylvania was asked for eight com- 
|)anii's of I'xiKTt ritlcmen, and in k-ss than si.xty days nine 
such c()m|)anies had marched to join Washington's army 
before Boston. There were many later calls for troops, 
and during the war the state sent over twenty-five thou- 
Siuid men into tin- (\)ntinental army. \Mu'rever there was 
hard fighting to be (kme, from Canada to the Carolinas, 
Pennsyl\-ania men gallantly followerl the Hag which was 
first made by Betsy Ross in Philadelphia. 

The Keystone state furnished many of the consj)icuous 
chieftains of the war. Among them were John Armstrong, 
the famous Indian fighter, who led the militia at the Bran- 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 55 

dywine; Thomas Mifflin, a gallant major-general in the 
campaigns of 1776 and 1777; Arthur St. Clair, another 
major-general who served throughout the war; John 
Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, the heroic preacher general, 
who said in 1775, " There is a time for all things — a 
time to preach and a time to pray, but there is also a time 
to fight, and that time has now come," and he was fol- 
lowed to the field by nearly all the men in his congrega- 
tion. This incident is the subject of Thomas Buchanan 
Read's well-known poem "The Revolutionary Rising." 
There were many other soldiers only less distinguished 
than those mentioned. 

But the greatest soldier son of Pennsylvania in the 
Revolution was Washington's " thunderbolt of war," 
" Mad Anthony " Wayne. Wayne was a leader in the 
revolutionary movement in his native county of Chester, 
served in the Canadian campaign, commanded the Penn- 
sylvania line in Washington's army, held the Hessians in 
check at Chadd's Ford, was in the thickest of the fight 
at Germantown, and was unceasing in his eftorts to provide 
for his men at Valley Forge. His stubborn fighting 
saved the day at Monmouth. He stormed Stony Point 
in the most brilliant bayonet charge of the whole war, 
helped drive Cornwallis into Yorktown, and recovered 
Georgia from the British. Anthony Wayne was far 
more than a dashing fighter. The man whom George 
Washington sent to conquer the Indians of Ohio after 
St. Clair had failed was a prudent and resourceful soldier 
who could plan wisely, make careful preparation, and then 
wait patiently until the hour came to strike. Then he 
struck sure and harrl. 




(IKXKRAL AXTIIOXY WAVXE. 



PENNS\1>VANIA IN THE REVOLUTION 57 

32. The Revolutionary Statesmen of Pennsylvania. — 

There were so many eminent Pennsylvanians in the public 
service during the Revolution that we cannot even men- 
tion all of them. Among the more distinguished were 
Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Con- 
gress during its entire history; Michael Hillegass, a sturdy 
Philadelphia merchant who was Treasurer of the United 
States from 1775 to 1789; George Clymer, Thomas Fitz- 
simmons, Jared Ingersoll, Francis Hopkinson, and Fred- 
erick Augustus Muhlenberg, all noted for their services 
in Congress during and after the Revolution ; James Wil- 
son, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was 
destined to play a great part in the work of making a 
government for the new nation ; and those men of science 
who devoted all their talents to the cause of liberty, 
David Rittenhouse and Benjamin Rush. 

Above all these men, however, John Dickinson, Robert 
Morris, and Benjamin Franklin stand pre-eminent in 
ability and in the value of their public services. We have 
seen how many of the great state papers of the opening 
years of the Revolution came from the pen of John Dick- 
inson. No American of that time, except Thomas Jeffer- 
son, could equal him in the use of simple and effective 
language. He lost influence for a while because he op- 
posed the Declaration of Independence as premature ; but he 
was true to the cause, served in the army, and later came back 
to Congress. After the Revolution, Dickinson was president 
of the Executive Council, as the governor of the state was 
then called. He helped to make the Constitution of the 
United States, and used his pen with all his old-time power 
and influence to secure its ratification by the states. 



58 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

In 1775 Robert Morris was a wealthy merchant in 
Pliiiadel|)hia. He devoted his time, his fortune, and his 
great ability to the service of his country Many times 
during the war he used his personal credit to procure 
money so that the army might carry on its work. He 
helj)ed establish the first bank in America, the Bank of 
Pennsylvania. From 1781 to 1784 he was superintendent 
of finance of the United States. Though he was a member 
of the Continental Congress and the Federal Convention, 
and the first United States senator from Pennsylvania, he 
will always be remembered as the great financier of the 
Revolution. 

When the Revolution opened Benjamin Franklin was 
the most illustrious man in America. No one except 
Washington did more to lay the foundations of the republic. 
Recognition abroad was absolutely necessary to the young 
nation. To win this recognition was the task of Franklin, 
and splendidly did he perform it. It is difficult to think 
of a greater public service than that summed up in the 
bare statement that Franklin was a signer of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, of the Treaty of Alliance with 
France, of the Treaty of Peace with England, and of the 
Constitution of the United States. It has been well 
said of him that " There was not a faculty of his wise old 
head which he did not i)ut at the service of his country, 
nor was there a pulse of his slow and steady heart which 
did not beat loyal to the cause of freedom." 




ROBERT MORRIS. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE NEW STATE IN THE NEW NATION 

33. F-rom Colony to Commonwealth. — Between 1774 
and I 7 70 the work of the committees of correspondence, 
fre(|uenl mass meetings, the formation of militia associa- 
tions, and the ])n)vincial congresses which met from time 
to time were gradually preparing the people of Pennsyl- 
vania for the change in government from an English 
colony to an indej)endent state. If the old provincial 
Assembly had boldly led the opposition to England it 
might have retained its authority. It failed to do so, how- 
ever, and consef|uently its power gradually faded away, 
while a revolutionary state government arose to take its 
place. 

On May 15, 1776, the Continental Congress recom- 
mended that the colonies, when necessary, set up new 
governments " adapted to the changed circumstances." 
The Revolutionary party in Pennsylvania acted promptly. 
The Revolutionary committee in Philadelphia sent a letter 
to the county committees asking them to appoint deputies 
to a j)r()vincial conference. This body met in Carpenter's 
Hall on the i8th of June and quickly decided to call a, 
convention for tin- j)urpose of forming a new government 
for the- state. On July 8th the ])eople of Pennsylvania 
ek'dcd the mi-mlx-rs of their (Irst state constitutional con- 
vention. 

(00) 



THE NEW STATE IN THE NEW NATION 6 1 

This convention met in Philadelphia July 15, 1776, 
elected Franklin its president, and at once took charge of 
the government of the state. The work of making the 
new constitution was largely done by James Cannon, an 
Irish schoolmaster, George Bryan, and Timothy Matlack. 
This constitution went into effect in November, 1776, 
without being submitted to a vote of the people of the state. 
It was the most democratic constitution yet made in Amer- 
ica. The convention which adopted it was composed of 
the ardent friends of the Revolution, and under it they 
were in complete control of the state. 

34. The State Constitution of 1776.— The first state 
constitution of Pennsylvania was made up of two parts; 
a Bill of Rights and a Plan of Government. The Bill 
of Rights declared that all men are born free and independ- 
ent, and that every community has a right to reform, alter, 
or abolish its government in such manner as it shall judge 
conducive to the public welfare. It proclaimed the right of 
every man to worship God according to the dictates of 
his own conscience. It maintained that all free men have 
the right to vote and to be voted for. It said that no 
man's property should be taken from him without his con- 
sent or that of his representatives. The rights of free 
speech, of a free press, and of trial by jury were all 
guaranteed . 

The Plan of Government provided that the laws should 
be made by a General Assembly of one house, elected 
yearly by all the free men over twenty-one years of age who 
had paid taxes within a year. No person could serve in 
the General Assembly more tkan four years out of any 
seven. The Assembly was to appoint the delegates to the 



0.' HISTORY i)V PENNSYLVANIA 

Con«;R'ss of llic United States. The executive power was 
vested in a Supreme Executive Council of twelve members, 
one elected from each county and one from the city of 
Philadelphia. The president of this Council was the 
chief magistrate of the state, but he liad very little real 
jxjwer. The P^.xecutive Council appointed the judges and 
granted re[)rieves, pardons, and licenses. A jx'culiar pro- 
visi(jn of this constitution was its provision for a Council of 
Censors to meet every seven years. This Council was to 
in(|uire if the Constitution had been observed, if the state 
olTicers had done their duty, and if the taxes had been justly 
laid and collected. The Council of Censors could also 
call a convention to amend the constitution if they thought 
it necessary. Pennsylvania was governed under the Con- 
stitution of 1776 until 1790. 

35. Pennsylvania Under Its First Constitution. — Soon 
after the new state government was organized, with 
Thomas Wharton, Jr., as president of the Executive 
Council, it was forced to remove to Lancaster by the im- 
iK-nding capture of Philadelphia by the British. President 
Wharton died in Lancaster and Vice-President George 
Pryan took his place. The new Assembly had early passed 
a law re(|iiiring every one to take an oath or affirmation of 
allegiance to the state constitution. Of course the Tories 
would not do this, and many of the Quakers refused also, 
because they thought the new government was illegal. 
Some of those who would not take the test oath were 
fined and imprisoned. Pennsylvania was rent with party 
strife all through the Revolution. 

The state government came back to Philadel]:)hia when 
the British evacuated it in 1778. Many of the more promi- 



THE NEW STATE IN THE NEW NATION 63 

nent Tories had left the city when the British withdrew, and 
now the Whigs began to punish severely those who re- 
mained . Two Tories, Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts, 
were convicted of treason and "hung as an example." 
These were years of trial and suffering in Pennsylvania. 
Both the state and the Continental Congress issued large 
amounts of paper money. This money rapidly depreci- 
ated in value. Before the war ended one silver dollar 
would buy forty of the Continental paper dollars. As a 
consequence of this depreciation prices were high and 
times were hard. There was much disorder and some 
rioting in the city. 

Joseph Reed was president of the Executive Council 
from 1778 to 1 781. In 1779 the state bought the property 
interest of the Penn family in Pennsylvania for about 
$650,000. This purchase did not include the private es- 
tates belonging to the former proprietors. In 1780 a law 
was passed that all children of slave parents born after 
that date should become free at twenty-one years of age. 
As no more slaves could be brought into the state, slavery 
gradually disappeared under this act. In 1781 the Penn- 
sylvania soldiers in Washington's army, dissatisfied with 
their term of service and lack of pay, revolted and marched 
toward Philadelphia. They were met by President Reed, 
with whom they came to a satisfactory agreement, and many 
of them returned to the army. Two years later a small 
body of discontented Pennsylvania troops stationed at 
Lancaster mutinied and marched upon Philadelphia. 
Nothing serious came of this affair, but Congress, feeling 
that it was unprotected, left Philadelphia and did not re- 
turn to that city until 1790. 



04 HISTOKV OF PENXSVIA AXIA 

TliLx.' iroLibk'S were partly clue to a weak national 
{government, partly to the exhaustion of the resources of 
the state. When ])eace came tlie people once more turned 
tluir altintioii lo the reljuikling of trade and industry. 
Joiin Dickinson was President of the Executive Council 
for three years, and when Franklin came home from 
Europe in 1 785 he was chosen to this office, which he held 
until 1788. The test oath re((uired during the war had 
excluded nearly one-half the people from any part in the' 
{government. In 1784 a strong effort was made to repeal 
tile act re(juiring this oath, but it was five years later before 
this was done and all Pennsylvanians were restored to 
citizenshi]). 

36. The Articles of Confederation. — Early in the Revo- 
lution the American people saw that it was not enough 
to set up new state governments. They felt that the states 
must act together, and in order to do so effectively they 
must organize a national government with definite powers 
and duties. The Continental Congress was acting as 
the government of all the states, but no definite powers 
had been granted to it, and it really had only so much au- 
thority as the people were willing to recognize and obey. 

I'^ven before the Declaration of Inde])cndence was 
adojHed tin- Congress had appointed a committee of thir- 
tun, onr from each state, to draw up a plail of union for 
the several states. John Dickinson was chairman of this 
committer and did more than any one else to prepare the 
.Articles of Confederation which were submitted to 
Congress July 12,1776. A plan of union which Franklin 
had i)ro|)ose(l llu' preceding year was helpful to the com- 
mittee in preparing the articles. Robert Morris and 



THE NEW STATE IN THE NEW NATION 65 

James Wilson took a prominent part in the discussion in 
Congress of the proposed form of government. This 
debate was carried on at intervals until November, 1777, 
when Congress adopted the articles and submitted them 
to the states for their ratification. They were to go into 
effect when ratified by all the states. Pennsylvania ratified 
them on July 9, 1778, but it was March i, 1781, before 
the last state gave its consent to the new plan of gov- 
ernment, and the Articles of Confederation became the 
first written constitution of the United States. 

At this time the states differed widely in social conditions 
and business interests. Their people knew little of each 
other and so misunderstood and distrusted each other. 
It soon became apparent that the makers of the Articles 
of Confederation, in their efforts to preserve the powers of 
the states, had failed to give enough authority to the central 
government. Congress was without power to collect taxes 
or to regulate commerce. The states were jealous and 
suspicious of one another. The government of the United 
States was despised abroad and disobeyed at home. 
During this critical period in our national history two 
Pennsylvanians, Thomas Mifflin and Arthur St. Clair, were 
chosen presidents of Congress. 

37. The Constitution of the United States. — The wisest 
leaders of the nation soon saw the necessity for a stronger 
government, and through their efforts a Federal Convention 
met in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1787. This 
convention drew up the present Constitution of the United 
States. 

The states sent their best men to the Federal Conven- 
tion. Washington was its president. James Madison, of 



56 HISTORY OF PENNSVLN ANIA 

\'ir«;inia, took the leadinj^ part in its work. Pennsylvania 
was ably n-prcscntcfl by the largest delegation sent from 
any state. Among its members were Benjamin Franklin, 
full of years and honors, whose great influence was thrown 
in favor of harmony and compromise; Robert Morris, the 
financier; James Wilson, the most learned lawyer and one 
of the best debaters on the floor; Gouverneur Morris, to 
whose literary skill the Constitution owes its clear and 
simi)le language; and several others of less note. John 
Dickinson, who had moved from Pennsylvania into Dela- 
ware, came from that state to uphold the rights of the 
smaller states. 

The Federal Convention was in session from May until 
September. Us task was a difllcult one, and at times it 
seemed that its members would never agree. There was 
much heated discussion over such questions as w^hether the 
large and the small states should have equal representa-' 
lion, whether the slaves should be counted in determining 
the population, the slave trade, the regulation of commerce, 
and the method of election and the powers of the president. 
At last the spirit of compromise prevailed, and the Consti- 
tution was adopted by the Convention and submitted to 
Congress, which sent it to the states for their ratification. 
It was to go into effect when nine states accepted it. 

The day after the Federal Convention adjourned 
Franklin laid the Constitution before the Assembly of 
Pennsylvania and the struggle over its ratification at once 
began. It was nearly time for a new legislature to be 
elected, and it was supj)osed that the question of calling a 
state convention to act upon the Constitution would be 
postponed until after this election. The friends of the 



THE NEW STATE IN THE NEW NATION 67 

Constitution, however, determined to call such a convention 
at once, and passed a motion to that effect by a vote of 
forty-three to nineteen. But before fixing the time for the 
election of delegates to the convention the Assembly took 
a recess until afternoon. When the members came 
together again it was found that the nineteen who opposed 
calling the convention had remained away from the session. 
It took forty-six members to form a quorum and, as only 
forty-five would attend, nothing could be done but adjourn 
until the next morning. When the Assembly met on the 
following day a crowd of men dragged two of the nineteen 
from their rooms and held them by force in their places in 
the Assembly, thus making a quorum and enabling that 
body to complete the call for a state convention. This 
violent action, together with the intense feeling against the 
new Constitution in some parts of the state, made the cam- 
paign for the election of delegates a very hot and abusive 
one. 

The Convention met in Philadelphia November 21st. 
The people had sent their strongest men as delegates. It 
w^as soon seen that the eastern counties were strongly in 
favor of the Constitution and the western almost solidly 
opposed to it. The burden of defending the new plan of 
government fell upon the great lawyer, James Wilson. He 
was ably seconded by Thomas McKean, the chief justice 
of the Supreme Court of the state. AIcKean was a son of 
Pennsylvania who had been one of the great Revolutionary 
leaders of Delaware. Returning to his native state, he 
had quickly risen to its highest judicial position, in which he 
served with great distinction for twenty-two years. Later 
he was for nine years governor of the state. The opposi- 




JAMES WILSON. 



THE NEW STATE IN THE NEW NATION 69 

tion to the Constitution was voiced by William Findley, 
Robert Whitehill, and John Smilie, each of whom later 
served for many years in the National Congress. The 
news that Delaware had accepted the Constitution by a 
unanimous vote quickened the action of the convention, and 
four days later, on December 12th, by a vote of forty-six 
to twenty-three, Pennsylvania became the second state to 
ratify. By midsummer of 1 788 the Constitution became 
the law of the land, and early the following year the govern- 
ment of the United States was organized under it. 

38. The State Constitution of 1790. — The Pennsylvania 
constitution of 1776 was very democratic. It had been 
made by the plain people of the state, who were well pleased 
with it, but it had never been looked upon with favor by 
the men of wealth and education. Those who upheld and 
defended it were called Constitutionalists. Those who 
opposed it and sought to change the form of government 
which it established called themselves Republicans. For 
a dozen years all the efforts of the Republicans to amend 
the state constitution were thwarted by the Constitutional- 
ists. This was a time of bitter party strife in PennsylV^ania. 

Many of the Pennsylvania Constitutionalists had op- 
posed the ratification of the Federal Constitution. The 
Republicans had ardently favored it, and, elated by their 
success, they began to urge more strongly than ever the 
calling of a convention to revise the state constitution. 
The Assembly was moved by the flood of petitions poured 
in upon it and asked the people to elect delegates to a state 
constitutional convention. In a session which lasted from 
November, 1789, to February, 1790, this convention drew 
up a new state constitution. It then adjourned for several 



70 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

months to allow the ])Coplc to review its work. At a later 
meeting the convention adopted the new constitution on 
September 2, 1790. Like the constitution of 1776, the 
constitution of 1790 was not submitted to a popular vote. 
The Pennsylvania constitution of 1790 was very similar 
to the Constitution of the United States which had just gone 
into effect. The laws were to be made by an Assembly 
composed of two houses, a house of representatives and a 
senate. The lower house, elected every year, could have 
not less than sixty nor more than one hundred members. 
The number of senators was never to be less than one-fourth 
nor more than one-third of the number of representatives. 
Senators were chosen for four years, and it was arranged 
that one-fourth of them should be elected every year. 
The executive power was vested in a governor elected for 
a term of three years. The governor could not hold his 
ofhce longer than nine in any period of twelve years. 
He could veto bills passed by the legislature. The judges 
and county officers were appointed by him. He had 
much more |X)wer than the president of the E.xecutive 
Council under the first constitution of the state. Penn- 
sylvania was governed under the constitution of 1790 
until 1838. 



CHAPTER VII 
A HALF=CENTURY OF POLITICAL LIFE 

39. New Governments in the State and Nation. — The 

establishment of a better national government under 
President Washington and the able management of the 
finances of the country by his great secretary of the treasury, 
Alexander Hamilton, soon brought better times. Com- 
merce began to flourish once more. Farm products could 
be sold for better prices. Pennsylvania shared largely in 
the renewed prosperity. The great Conestoga wagons 
were seen in increasing numbers on the roads leading to 
Philadelphia. That city exported more than twice as 
much flour in 1789 as in 1786. The old debts of the 
state and nation were being paid, money was more plenti- 
ful, and new business enterprises of every kind were under- 
taken. 

Thomas Mifliin, the Revolutionary general, was the 
first governor of the state under the constitution of 1 790. 
Arthur St. Clair, another gallant soldier of the Revolution, 
was a candidate for the office, but was defeated. In 1791 
General St. Clair led an army against the Indians in Ohio, 
but his force was utterly routed. Three years later 
Anthony Wayne attacked a great force of Indians in north- 
ern Ohio and utterly routed them. This was the most 
important victory ever gained over the red men in that 
region. It freed western Pennsylvania from the danger of 

(71) 



72 HISTORY OF PENNSYUANIA 

Indian attack and opened the lands in Oliio to settlement. 
(}()vern<)r Milllin served three terms. He was very popu- 
lar. .\ (|uarter of a century of devoted and valuable pub- 
lic service c-ntitles him to a hi.t^h rank among the sons of 
the state. 

In the summer of 1793 the yellow fever broke out in 
Philadelphia and spread rapidly. The people were panic- 
stricken, business was at a standstill, and thousands left 
the city. The doctors were devoted and heroic, but they 
could do little to stop the disease or to cure the sick. 
Stephen Girard, the great merchant and ship owner, 
vokmteered as a nurse and took charge of a hospital. 
More than four thousand persons are known to have died 
of the fever in four months. With the coming of cold 
weather the disease gradually disappeared, but it broke out 
again in 1797 and the following years. This plague made 
the people see the necessity for cleaner streets, better hospi- 
tals, and a quarantine. It is now known that yellow fever 
is transmitted from man to man only by a particular kind 
of moscjuito. 

While Washington was President two great political 
|)arties were forming in the United States. The first 
held, as one of its great leaders ])ut it, that the government 
ought to be in the hands of the rich, the well born, and the 
educated. The second believed in the right of all men to 
a N'oice in the government. The men of the first party 
followed .Mexander Hamilton, sui)])orted his financial 
l)olicy, and were known as Federalists. Those of the 
second rallied around Thomas JefTcrson, opposed Hamil- 
ton's policy, and called themselves Republicans, though 
tlu-y are sometimes called Democratic-Republicans. The 



A HALF-CENTURY OF POLITICAL LIFE 73 

Federalists were shocked by the excesses of the great 
Revolution which was going on in France at this time. 
The Republicans, on the other hand, sympathized with 
the French in their struggle for liberty and equality, and 
gave an enthusiastic welcome to "Citizen" Genet when he 
came to this country as the representative of the new French 
Republic. Feeling between these tw^o parties was intense 
and bitter. The Federalists were in the majority in Phil- 
adelphia and the neighboring counties. The people of the 
central and western parts of the state were strongly Demo- 
cratic-Republican. Thomas JefTerson became President 
in 1 801 and his party carried Pennsylvania in every presi- 
dential election after that until 1840. 

40. The Whiskey Insurrection. — In 1791 Congress, at 
the suggestion of Secretary Hamilton, passed an excise law. 
This law laid a tax of four pence per gallon on all distilled 
whiskey. At once violent opposition arose in western 
Pennsylvania. Many of the people of that section were of 
Scotch-Irish descent and knew of the oppression by excise 
laws and excise officers in Ireland. Long distances and 
bad roads made it impossible for them to send their grain 
to market. The freight charges on a barrel of flour from 
Pittsburgh to Philadelphia were more than the flour was 
worth. Trade down the Ohio and Mississippi to New 
Orleans, which was then in the hands of the Spanish, was 
dangerous and uncertain, but by making the grain into 
whiskey it found a ready market at home or in the 
rapidly growing settlements in Kentucky. The excise 
seemed unfair to the people of western Pennsylvania be- 
cause it taxed them heavily on the main product of their 
farms. 



74 HISTURV (Jl- PENKSVLVAXIA 

They refused to pay the tax and determined to resist its 
collecti(jn. The excise collectors were forced to resign. 
Some of them were tarred and feathered and their property 
Inirned. There were fights in which people were killed. 
Th(jusands(;f armed men met near Pittsburgh and marched 
to that town. This was open insurrection. Governor 
Mini in hesitated to quell it, but President Washington 
acted promi)tly. Fifteen thousand troops from Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia marched to- 
ward the scene of trouble. Upon the approach of this 
force the insurgents dispersed and the people promised to 
obey the law. This taught the people that they now had a 
national government that could compel obedience to its 
laws. 

The same lesson was taught in eastern Pennsylvania a 
few years later. In 1 798 Congress laid a direct tax upon 
houses. The value of a house was estimated l;y the 
number and size of its windows. This house tax w^as 
extremely unpopular in the German section of the state. 
John r>ies, an auctioneer widely known in Lehigh and 
N()rtham|)t()n counties, denounced it at every opportunity. 
In I ygy he led a mob which released some prisoners held 
in Bethlehem for resisting the law. The militia were called 
out and Fries was arrested. He was convicted of treason, 
but Presidint .Vdams pardoned him. This affair is known 
as "Fries' Rebellion." 

41. Governor McKeaii and His Times. — Pennsvlvania 
was steadily growing more democratic. In 1799 Thomas 
McKean was elected governor by a majority of six thou- 
sand over James Ross, the Federalist candidate. Three 
years latiT he was re-elected over the same opponent by 



A HALF-CENTURY OF POLITICAL LIFE 75 

thirty thousand majority. From this time the part played 
by the Federahsts in the politics of the state rapidly de- 
clined. Meanwhile the Democratic-Republicans were 
becoming more extreme in their views. Many of them 
thought that all good men were equally qualified to be 
office-holders. If they were honest and sensible they needed 
no particular knowledge or training for the position. 
Governor McKeandid not sympathize with these opinions, 
and in 1805 the more democratic element of his party 
turned against him and nominated Simon Snyder, a store- 
keeper and farmer of Northumberland county, for gover- 
nor. The more conservative people of the state supported 
McKean, who was re-elected by a greatly reduced majority. 
In 1808 Snyder was elected governor, which position he held 
until 181 7. 

Few men in Pennsylvania history have given the state 
a longer or more useful service than that of Governor Mc- 
Kean. He was a learned lawyer, an upright judge, and a 
great leader of men. Sometimes rough and passionate, he 
was always honest, brave, and patriotic. He made the 
mistake of removing public officers to make places for his 
political followers and personal friends. Aside from his 
influence in thus fastening the evil spoils system upon the 
state, he was an excellent governor. 

During the early years of the nineteenth century Penn- 
sylvania gave several distinguished public servants to the 
nation. James Ross and George Logan, the grandson of 
James Logan, were prominent in the senate of the United 
States. Alexander J. Dallas was secretary of the treasury 
in President Madison's cabinet. Richard Rush served 
the same President as attorney-general. But the most 



76 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

cmint-nt Pcnnsylvaniiin of this time was an adopted son 
of the state. In 1 780 a yoiini!; Swiss named Albert Gallatin 
came to America. After drifting about for some time he 
settled in western Pennsylvania, where his great ability 
was soon recognized and he began to take an active part 
in the ])olitical life of the state. At first he favored the 
Whiskey Insurrection, but later urged submission to the 
law. He was elected to the United States senate, but that 
body excluded him because he had not been nine years a 
citizen of the United States. He served for six years with 
great distinction in the national house of representatives, 
and from 1801 to 1814 was secretary of the treasury. No 
man except Alexander Hamilton has ever performed the 
duties of that ofTice with greater ability. 

42. Pennsylvania in the War of 1812. — During the 
decade from 1795 to 1805 there had been great business 
prosperity in America. England and France had been at 
war for years, and iifter 1805 their efTorts to injure each 
other seriously damaged the foreign trade of the United 
States. The Embargo and Non-intercourse Acts, by which 
our government sought to force the offending nations to 
respect our rights, only made matters worse, and Ameri- 
can commerce was speedily ruined. The farmers of the 
country could no longer exj)ort their surplus products, 
prices fell, and e\-ery where the peo])le suffered from hard 
times. These attacks upon our trade, together with the 
hot indignation against England stirred by the impress- 
mmt of American seamen and the arrogant tone of the 
English government, brought on our second war with that 
country in 181 2. 

Then- was no fighting u])on the soil of Pennsylvania dur- 




ALBERT G.ALLATIN. 



yS HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

in<^ this war. 'rwitc, however, the state was threatened 
with invasion. In 1814 when the British burned the 
capitol at Washington and threatened Baltimore the old 
forts on the Delaware were repaired and a force of militia 
was i)oste(l near the Maryland line. A year earlier 
tr(X)ps had been sent to Erie to guard against a threatened 
attack from Canada. Perry's victory on Lake Erie was 
the l)est defense on the lake frontier. It was from a fleet 
built in !'>ie and manned in part by Pennsylvania militia 
that he sent the famous message, "We have met the en- 
emy and they are ours." 

Pennsylvania furnished more men and money to carry on 
the War of 181 2 than any other state. Jacob Brown, 
"the fighting Quaker," who served with distinction on the 
Canadian border, and later rose to be general-in-chief 
of the American army, was a Pennsylvanian. Those 
brilliant naval officers, James Biddic, commander of the 
Hornet, Charles Stewart, captain of "Old Ironsides," as 
the Constitution was called, and Commodore Stephen De- 
catur, hero of the war against the Barbary pirates and dis- 
tinguished in the w\ar with England, w'cre all natives of 
Phila(lelj)hia. 

43. A (iroiip of German Governors. — For thirty years 
after the inauguration of Simon Snyder in 1808 every 
go\'ern()r of the state except one was a Pennsylvania Ger- 
man. During Governor Snyder's administration the 
state caj)ital, which had been in Philadelphia until 1 799 and 
at Lancaster from that date until 1810, w^as permanently 
located at Ilarrisburg. William Findlay succeeded Gov- 
ernor Snyder, but served only one term. Later he was a 
United States senator for six years. Joseph Hiester, a 




COMMODORE STEPHEX DECATUR. 



8o 111SIC)R\ C)l I'l.NN^MAANIA 

veteran solditr of the Resolution, was governor for a 
single term, and John Andrew Shulze for two. At this 
time the j)eo|)le were demanding better means of transpor- 
tation and much money was spent in making turnpikes and 
canals. A great deal of this money was borrowed by the 
state. In 1S25 Lafayette revisited the field of the Brandy- 
wine, where lie first fought for the American cause. George 
Wolf was governor from 1829 to 1835. It was during his 
U-rm that the free school system was established. Gover- 
nor Wolf and his successor, Joseph Ritner, were both de- 
voted friends of public education. 

During the years between 181 5 and 1835 political parties 
were rai)idly changing in the United States. The election 
of 181 6 was the last in which the Federalists had a candi- 
date for the presidency. A vast majority of the voters 
called themselves Democratic-Republicans, but many of 
the old dilTerencesof opinion still persisted and new ones 
were constantly arising. After the election of 1824 two new 
])arties Ijegan to develop. One of them, holding fast to 
the principles of Jefferson, but now following Andrew 
Jackson, still called itself Democratic-Republican. Soon, 
however, it dropped the name Republican, and from the 
days of Jackson's presidency it has been known as the 
Democratic party. The other at first took the name of 
National Re|)ul)lican, to show that it believed in the need 
of a strong national government. It soon changed its 
name and as the Whig party was prominent in American 
[K)litical history for the next twenty-five years. 

All of these (k-rman governors except the last named 
were elected by the Democrats. Most of them were also 
opposed by Democrats, for the political campaigns in 



A HALF-CENTURY OF POLITICAL LIFE 8l 

Pennsylvania in those days were mainly between dif- 
ferent factions of that party. One of the questions on 
which the Democrats split was the method of nominat- 
ing candidates for state offices. At first such nomina- 
tions had been made by members of the legislature, but 
now the custom of holding state conventions for that 
purpose was arising. The first national nominating con- 
vention was held in 1831 by the Anti-Masonic party. 
This was a new and short-lived party established to oppose 
secret societies. For a time it was very strong in Pennsyl- 
vania, and in 1835, with the help of the Whigs and aided 
by the disunion among the Democrats, it elected Joseph 
Ritner to the governorship. 

44. The Growth of the State. — Pennsylvania nearly 
doubled its population between 1790 and 1810, and more 
than doubled it during the next; thirty years. Settlers 
were going in great numbers to the western part of the 
state and more slowly to its northern part. Many new 
counties were organized in both of these sections. New 
farms were cleared and cultivated, forges and factories 
sprang up, mines were opened, and many public improve- 
ments were made. 

These years of material advancement were also a time 
of social and moral progress. Steps were taken to lessen 
crime and to improve the condition of the poor. Persons 
who were in jail because they could not pay their debts 
were better treated, and presently imprisonment for debt 
w^as abolished. A model state prison was established 
and criminals received more humane treatment. The 
Pennsylvania Hospital was "a national honor." Lotteries 
which had been very common began to be frowned upon, 



82 IILSIUKV Ol- I'LXNSYLVANIA 

and there was a general movement in favor of temperance 
and better morals. Education was encouraged and a 
literature worthy of the name Ixgan to appear. 

The first forty years of the nineteenth century witnessed 
the 'steady growlli of democratic feeling everywhere in 
America. The plain people called for a larger part in the 
management of the government. They asked, among 
otiier things, that every man should have the right to vote, 
that all officers should be elected, and that judges should 
no longer hold office for life. As the new states in the west 
were formed they made constitutions in which these demo- 
cratic demands were granted. One by one the old states 
brought about the same result by amending their consti- 
tutions or by making new ones. Ever since the Pennsyl- 
vania constitution of 1790 was adopted there had been de- 
mands for its revision. In 1825 the matter was submitted 
to the people, but they decided to do nothing at that time. 
Ten years later they voted to call a state constitutional 
convention. 

45. The Constitution of 1838.— On May 2, 1837, this 
constitutional convention met at Harrisburg. It contin- 
ued in session in tliat city and in Philadelphia, at intervals, 
until February 22, 1838, when its work was completed. 
Many of the strong men of the state sat in this convention 
and the imjiortant questions at issue were debated with 
great ability. In October, 1838, the people by a small 
majority adopted the new constitution, which thus became 
the fundamental law of the commonwealth. Pennsylvania 
was governed under the constitution of 1838 until the first 
day of January, 1874. 

The new constitution made very little change in the 



A HALF-CENTURY OF POLITICAL LIFE 83 

form of the legislature, but somewhat increased its powers. 
It forbade the governor to hold his office longer than six 
in any term of nine years. His power to appoint officers 
was greatly limited. This was the most important change 
made at this time. Henceforth all county officers were to 
be elected by the people. The judges were to be appointed 
by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate. 
Under the constitution of 1790 the senate had no power to 
limit the governor in this way. Judges were no longer to 
hold offices for life. Those of the supreme court were to 
serve for fifteen years; those in the county courts for 
shorter terms. The bill of rights in the constitution of 
1790 was unchanged. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND TRAVEL 

46. Early Travel and Transportation. — At the opening of 
our national history inland commerce was still carried on 
by the methods of the colonial period.^ In the eastern 
section of the state heavily laden wagons crept slowly 
along the country roads toward Philadelphia or moved 
homeward with such goods as that city offered for 
sale. Farther west long trains of pack-horses wound 
along bridle-paths through the forests and over the moun- 
tains. The mail service was slow and very uncertain. 
Many of the stage-coach lines had suspended business 
during the Revolution, but with the return of peace they 
began to resume their former service. 

In those days travel and transportation were slow, diffi- 
cult, expensive, and sometimes dangerous. The roads 
were in a wretched condition. On the best of them the 
ruts were deep, the hills steep, and in the spring the mud 
seemed bottomless. Sometimes travelers had to help 
the driver tug the coach out of it. The larger rivers were 
crossed by ferries until long after 1790. The first per- 
manent bridge over the Schuylkill was opened in 1805. 
In 1 784 it cost twelve and one-half cents per pound to send 
goods on pack-horses from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. 
In 1803 the freight for hauling most articles of merchandise 
between the same cities was five dollars per hundred pounds. 

' Section 20. 
(84) 



THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND TRAVEL 85. 

47. The Era of the Turnpike. — With the return of pros- 
perity after 1 790 there arose an insistent demand for better 
roads. The people were now devoting all their energy to 
the arts of peace, and they felt that they must have cheaper 
transportation for the products of their industry. Penn- 
sylvania was one of the first states to engage in a great 
system of public improvements. It was its policy to en- 
courage the people of the more populous counties, by 
liberal charters and grants of tolls, to form companies and 
build highways for themselves, while in the more sparsely 
settled sections the state spent its own money for roads and 
bridges. 

During the last part of the eighteenth century two 
English engineers, Telford and Macadam, devised a 
method of making splendid turnpikes of broken stone. 
Between 1792 and 1794 a private company built the first 
stone turnpike in the United States from Philadelphia to 
Lancaster. This famous "Lancaster Pike" was a success 
from the first and gave a great impetus to western travel 
through Pennsylvania. Soon other turnpikes were con- 
structed and old roads were improved. 

The era of turnpike building in Pennsylvania came be- 
tween 1800 and 1830. Most of these highways were of 
local interest only, connecting neighboring towns, but a few 
were longer and of great commercial importance. Nearly 
all the turnpike companies of this time were aided by 
state appropriations. In spite of the high tolls charged 
upon them, turnpikes were an important factor in the in- 
land commerce of the state down to the middle of the nine- 
teenth century. After 1830 the people began looking to 
canals and railroads for transportation and turnpike build- 



86 HISTORY OF PFA'XSVLXANIA 

ing declined. For some years many plank roads were 
built as a substitute for turnjjikes for short distances, but 
they did not last long. Many of the old turnpikes, how- 
ever, are still in excellent condition. 

Soon after the Lancaster Pike was completed a turnpike 
was extended by way of Carlisle and Bedford to Pitts- 
burgh. This highway was called the State Road, and for 
years it was more traveled than any other road in Pennsyl- 
vania. Soon after 1800 the Northern or Huntingdon 
Turnpike was o})cned to Pittsburgh. This road ascended 
the Juniata Valley and thence crossed the mountains to 
the valley of the Conemaugh. In 1804 a through line of 
stage-coaches was established from Philadelphia to Pitts- 
burgh. The trip took about seven days and a through 
ticket cost from fourteen to twenty dollars. Special rates 
were made to emigrants, who were carried west in large 
covcTed wagons. Emigrant travel formed a large portion 
of the business along the turnpike. In 181 1 the United 
Slates government began the construction of the National 
Road, This was a fine highway, forty feet wide at its 
narrowest point, which ran west from Cumberland, Mary- 
land, to Wheeling, West Virginia, and from there was ex- 
tended into Ohio. Seventy-five miles of this great road 
joining the east and the west were in Pennsylvania. 

For many years the turnpike thoroughfares between 
Pittsburgh and the east were great arteries of trade and 
travel. .Along them 

"The Conestoga wagons with their fine 
Deep-dusted, six-horse teams in heavy gear, 
High hames and chiming bells — 



THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND TRAVEL 87 

bore the commerce of the state. These wagons were very 
numerous. As many as a hundred would follow in a close 
row; "the leaders of one wagon with their noses in the 
trough of the wagon ahead." Great droves of cattle, 
sheep, and hogs from western Pennsylvania and Ohio 
followed these roads to the markets of Baltimore and 
Philadelphia. Past the plodding teams and slowly moving 
herds dashed the stage-coaches with their four horses at a 
gallop. At short distances along the pikes were wayside 
taverns where horses were changed, and travelers, team- 
sters, and drovers found accommodations. The stirring 
scene when the stages of rival lines with horns blowing, 
streamers flying, and horses on the full run thundered 
up to one of these inns was part of the life which has long 
since departed. 

48. The Rivers as Roads. — The settlers of Pennsylvania 
followed the example of the Indians in using the rivers for 
transportation purposes. The birch bark canoe early 
gave place to the skiff. Soon rafts and flat-boats which 
floated with the current were used for down-stream traffic, 
and keel-boats which could be pushed up stream by poles 
were common. Keel-boats play a large part in the history 
of river navigation in western Pennsylvania. They were 
called Durham boats upon the waters of the eastern part 
of the state. Boat building was a flourishing business in 
early Pittsburgh. 

After the Revolution much attention was given to im- 
proving the rivers for navigation purposes. Their chan- 
nels were cleared of rocks and deepened where necessary, 
and arrangements were made for carrying goods around 
the more difficult rapids. This work of making the rivers 



88 HISTORY OF I'K\\SVL\AN'IA 

more useful has gone on all throu.^h the nineteenth cen- 
tury. By means of dams the water has been deepened and 
locks enable boats to pass the dams. The Monongahela 
river in particular has been much improved in this way. 

The early river traffic was heavy and important. It is 
said that one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of wheat 
were brought down the Susquehanna in j 790. In 1812 a 
barrel of Hour could be mo\e(l down the same river from 
southern New York to Columbia for twenty-five cents. 
It cost one dollar to send it thence by land to Philadelphia. 
The flour, bacon, and whiskey of western Pennsylvania 
found a way to market down the Ohio and the Mississippi 
to New Orleans. In later years the coal of the Monon- 
gahela valley and the iron, lumber, and petroleum along 
the Alleghany came down these rivers to Pittsburgh. 

49. The Steamboat. — The value of the rivers as high- 
ways was greatly increased by the invention of the steam- 
boat. In the later years of the eighteenth century several 
men were working at the problem of propelling vessels by 
steam. After many trials, John Fitch, a native of Connecti- 
cut, who was then living in Philadelphia, invented a steam- 
boat which made regular trips on the Delaw^are river be- 
tween Philadelphia and Trenton during the summer of 
1790. The enterprise did not pay and the boat was aban- 
doned . 

It was reserved for a native of Pennsylvania, Robert 
Fulton, to associate his name with the invention of the 
steamboat. r\iUon was born in Little Britain, Lancaster 
county, in 1765. He had a marked taste for drawing and 
painting, and at the age of twenty-one went to England 
where he became a pupil of another Pennsylvanian, the 




ROBERT FULTON. 



90 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



great a nisi, Hcnjamin West. However, he soon found his 
true field of labor in mechanical invention. During a 
residence of some years in England and France he invented 
several macliines, did much to promote canal improvement, 
and made a submarine torpedo-boat. Turning his atten- 
tion to the j)roblem of navigation by steam, with the finan- 
cial aid of Robert R. Livingston, Fulton built the Clermont, 
the first successful steamboat in the world. On her trial 
tri]) in 1807 this boat steamed from New York to Albany 
in thirty-two hours. 

From this time steam navigation developed rapidly. In 
1809 a steamboat was making regular trips on the Delaware 
between Philadelphia and Burlington, and soon steam ferry- 
boats were going back and forth across that river. In 181 1 
the first steamboat upon the Ohio w'as launched at Pitts- 
burgh. Before long steamboats of light draft were plying 
on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. The first iron 
steamboat in the United States was built at York in 1825 
and used upon the Susquehanna. The importance of 
ri\i-r steamboats in saving labor and in promoting the 
development of the Middle West can hardly be overesti- 
mated. With them trafiic in both directions upon the 
western waters became easy and profitable. Before the 
railroads were built Pittsburgh was the great starting- 
point in the river trade. More than three thousand river 
steamers have been built in that city. 

50. The First Canals. William Penn suggested the 
jxjssibility of opening a continuous waterway from the 
Delaware to the Susquehanna by way of the Schuylkill and 
one of its branches. In 1772 Franklin described the 
e.xperience of Fngland with canals and recommended their 



THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND TRAVEL ^i 

construction in America. Owingtothe lack of moneynoth- 
ing was done in this direction until after the Revolution. 

Probably the earliest canal in Pennsylvania v^as the 
Conewago Canal in York county, completed in 1797. In 
1 791 a company v^as formed to connect the v^^aters of the 
Susquehanna and the Schuylkill. The following year 
another company was organized to build a canal from 
Norristown to Philadelphia. Work was delayed on these 
projects by financial difhculties, and in 181 1 the two com- 
panies were united under the name of the Union Canal 
Company. By 1827 the Union Canal was completed from 
the Susquehanna to the Schuylkill near Reading, where it 
connected with the Schuylkill Canal, which had been opened 
from Philadelphia to Pottsville two years earlier. At this 
time the packet boat Planet made regular trips between 
Philadelphia and Reading, the fare being two dollar's and 
a half. 

A canal connecting the Delaware with Chesapeake Bay 
was completed in 1829, and the opening of the Delaware 
and Raritan Canal a little later made an inland water 
route all the way from New York by way of Philadelphia 
and Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk, 
and Richmond. The Lehigh Canal carried the coal of 
Mauch Chunk to the Delaware at Easton. Other canals 
v/ere built in various parts of the state. In 1840 there were 
about one thousand miles of canal in Pennsylvania. After 
the railroads were built traffic on the canals rapidly de- 
clined and many of them were abandoned. In 1900 only 
about three hundred and forty miles of canal were open for 
navigation in the state, and for most of this distance very 
little business was done. 



92 IIISTURV Ul- I'KXXSVLVANIA 

51. The Great Pennsylvania Canal. — Fhc Eric Canal 
insured tu Xcw York the bulk of the western trade, unless 
something could be done to lower the cost of carrying 
go(xls between Pittsburgh and the East. Realizing this 
fact, the people of Pennsylvania in 1826 entered upon the 
most extensive scheme of public improvement that they 
have ever undertaken. They determined to build a great 
highway of commerce from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. 
After a careful survey it was decided to build a railroad to 
Columbia. A canal was to extend from Columbia up the 
Susquehanna river to the mouth of the Juniata, and thence 
up that stream to HoUidaysburg. From this point a 
Portage Railroad, thirty-six miles long, was to cross the 
Alleghany Mountains to Johnstown. From here a canal 
was to follow the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas, and Alleghany 
rivers to Pittsburgh. 

On July 4, 1826, ground was broken at Harrisburg, and 
eight years later the great thoroughfare of canal and rail- 
road was open to traffic from the Delaw^are to the Ohio. 
The Portage Railroad was constructed with five planes on 
each side of the mountains. At the head of each slope 
tluTe was a stationary engine, which drew up or let down 
cars by an endless wire rope. There was a similar arrange- 
ment on a steej) grade near Philadelphia and another at 
Columbia. A great feeder of the Pennsylvania Canal as- 
cendi'd the Suscjuehanna Ri\'er and its west branch to 
Williams[X)ri and I^ock Haven, and another division fol- 
lowed the north branch from Northumberland to the 
New York State line. For many years this great state 
system of canals was an important factor in the commercial 
life of the commonwealth. In 1857 the main line of the 



THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND TRAVEL 93 

Pennsylvania Canal was bought by the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company, and sooner or later all the other canals 
owned by the state were sold. The main canal w^as soon 
abandoned by the railroad and all the branches have now 
fallen into disuse. 

The state constructed the Pennsylvania system of canals 
and connecting railroads, but the shippers had to furnish 
their own cars, boats, and motive power. Many trans- 
portation companies arose to take charge of this business. 
At first the cars were drawn by horses or locomotives on 
the same line of track, but so much trouble arose because 
the horse cars delayed the steam trains that the use of 
horses was forbidden. The canal boats were drawn by 
horses and mules. Freight rates were lower than by 
wagon, but still much higher than they are since the railroad 
has displaced the canal. In 1837 it cost $2.35 per hundred 
pounds to send merchandise like dry goods or shoes from 
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. By 1849 the rate on these 
articles had fallen to 90 cents. 

There was much passenger travel as wtII as freight 
service on the canals. Boats used exclusively for carrying 
passengers were called packet boats. Charles Dickens, who 
traveled by one of these packets on the Pennsylvania Canal 
in 1842, has left us this charming picture of the experience : 
"The exquisite beauty of the opening day, when light came 
gleaming off from everything; the lazy motion of the boat, 
when one lay idly on the deck, looking through, rather 
than at, the deep blue sky ; the gliding on at night, so noise- 
lessly, past frowning hills, sullen with dark trees, and 
sometimes angry in one red burning spot high up where 
unseen men lay crouching round a fire ; the shining out of 



94 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

the bright stars, undisturbed by noise of wheels or steam or 
any sound than the liquid ripjjling of the water as the boat 
went on— all these were jnire delii^hts." 

52. The Day of the Railroad. — Short railways for hauling 
coal or stone were used in England as early as the seven- 
teenth century. They were operated by hand or horse- 
power. The first railway of this type in the United States 
was built in Boston in 1807. It was a temporary affair. 
The first permanent tramway in America was constructed 
bv Thomas Lcipcr, near Philadelphia in 1809, to carry stone 
from a fjuarry to the river. Soon other tramways were 
built. There was one in Armstrong county, Pennsyl- 
vania, as early as 1818, while railroads of this kind several 
miles in length were built at Mauch Chunk and from 
Carbondale to Honesdale before 1830. These roads were 
used to carry coal. At the beginning of the nineteenth 
century Oliver Evans, the most ingenious of early American 
inventors, was experimenting in Philadelphia upon the use 
of steam as a motive power. The first locomotive regularly 
used to carry freight and passengers was made by George 
Stej^henson, in England, in 1825. 

In the search for faster and cheaper means of travel and 
transportation the American people began to turn their 
attention to railroads between 1825 and 1830. By the 
latter year such roads had been begun in IMaryland, Penn- 
sylvania, South Carolina, and New York, and thirty-six 
miles had been completed in the whole country. In 1834 
the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was opened, and 
before 1840 several short railroads had been built in the 
state. In the meantime locomotives were being improved 
and ra})idly taking the place of horses as the motive power. 



THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND TRAVEL 95 

The work of railroad building went steadily and swiftly 
forward with the years. By i860 the whole north and 
middle west had been knit together by bands of iron. 
Before the Civil War the railroads had displaced the turn- 
pikes and canals as the great arteries of trade and travel. 
The days of the stage-coach and the packet boat were 
gone forever. The saving in the time and cost of trans- 
portation revolutionized commerce and largely accounts for 
the marvelous growth of the whole country. The rail- 
road has played the leading part in the task of building 
up the industries and developing the vast natural resources 
of Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES 

53. Agriculture. — In the early days of the nation nearly 
everyone in Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, made a living by 
farming or in some form of trade or commerce. Since 
then many industries have developed in the state, but 
agriculture has ahvays retained the foremost place. In 
the fertility of its soil and in the variety and quality of the 
products of its farms Pennsylvania is unsurpassed by any 
other state in the Union. For some years after 1789 the 
opening of new markets in Europe and the increasing de- 
mands for food stuffs at home due to the rapid growth of 
})()puhition made farming a very prosperous business. 

Too often our early agricultural methods were wasteful 
and unscientific and tended rapidly to exhaust the fertility 
of the soil. .About the middle of the nineteenth century 
we began to import commercial fertilizer from South 
.America and a little later to manufacture it ourselves. 
Washington recommended the establishment of a govern- 
ment (le])artment to promote intelligent agriculture, but it 
was 1839 before Congress appropriated any money for the 
purchase of new varieties of seeds and plants, and the 
Bureau of .Agriculture was not organized until 1862. 

Early farm implements were of the rudest pattern. 
Spades, pitchforks, j)Iows, and grain cradles were of home 
manufacture. Their iron parts were clumsily wrought over 



THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES 97 

the forge of the neighborhood blacksmith. About one 
hundred years ago Joseph Smith, of Philadelphia, invented 
an iron plowshare which soon came into use. The mowing 
machine was invented in 1833, and for fifty years after that 
time the inventions and improvements of agricultural 
machinery were well-nigh numberless. The saving in time 
and in the cost of labor due to machinery has been as great 
on the farm as in any other industry. 

54. Trade and Commerce. — Trade flourished in Phila- 
delphia before the Revolution. With the dawn of inde- 
pendence there were high hopes for even greater commercial 
success. Hitherto the British policy had largely restricted 
American trade to English ports. Now the whole world 
was opening to it. At first these hopes were not realized. 
The weak government of the Confederation was unable to 
make satisfactory commercial treaties with other countries, 
but with the establishment of a strong national government 
in 1789 our commerce entered upon a period of swift 
development. One great authority says, "The growth of 
American shipping from 1789 to 1807 is without parallel 
in the history of the commercial w^orld." x\s the only 
port of a rich state Philadelphia shared largely in this 
prosperity. 

The exports of Pennsylvania in those days were wheat, 
flour, salted beef and pork, shingles, ship timber, and other 
products of its farms and forests. From England came 
manufactured goods of all sorts; from the West Indies, 
rum, sugar, and molasses; while the rich trade with China 
and India supplied tea, spices, muslins, and silks. The 
shipping merchants rapidly grew rich. Chief among 
them was Stephen Girard. A native of France and a 



98 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

sailor in iiis youth, Girard established himself in Phila- 
deli)hia before the Revolution, prospered in business as 
a merchant and mariner, and left $9,000,000, an enormous 
fortune for that time. Stephen Girard was a strange 
character. Roujj;]! and forbidding in appearance, crabbed 
in manner, miserly in little things, he was frugal, indus- 
trious and masterful, and in public matters open handed 
and generous. He made large gifts to many public insti- 
tutions in his will, and with princely generosity endowed 
Girard College, a splendid school for orphan boys. 

This era of commercial prosperity came to an end with 
the English encroachments upon our trade after 1806 and 
with our own embargo and non-intercourse laws. There 
was a revi\-al of foreign trade after the War of 181 2, but 
Philadelphia never recovered her commercial supremacy, 
which then jxisscd to New York. 

55. Money and Banks.— In the early history of the state 
the people suffered great inconvenience from the lack of an 
adequate supply of good money. The Continental paper 
money issued during the Revolution was nearly valueless 
and had dropped out of circulation. The coins in common 
use were English shillings and sovereigns and French and 
vSj)anish sihvr pieces, and even these were insuflficient in 
amount. In 1792 Congress provided for the coinage of 
gold and silver, but the supply of these metals fell short of 
the needs of the country. State banks issued notes or 
promises to pay which were intended to circulate as 
money, but the people could never be quite sure that 
they would be paid. 

In 1791 a national Ixmk was established and its notes 
provided a sujjj^ly of good paper money for some years. 




STEPHEN GIRARD. 



lOO HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

When the charter of this bank ex])ire{l in 1811 it was not 
renewed . Tliis left a free field for the state banks. Soon a 
lar<^e number of these banks were chartered in Pennsyl- 
vania. 'I'his craze for state banks again filled the country 
with bank notes of uncertain value. By 1816 many of 
these notes were so ]X)or or worthless that Conpjress estab- 
lished a second United States bank. Nicholas Biddle, a 
brilliant financier of Philadelphia, was the president of this 
bank for many years, and it was with him that President 
Jackson wa^ed the famous contest which ended with the 
defeat of the eilort to renew the charter of the bank in 1832, 
and in the removal from it of the money of the United 
States. Meanwhile state banks were becoming more and 
more numerous. Much of the paper money in common 
use in Pennsylvania down to the time of the Civil War 
consisted of state bank notes, some of which were of un- 
certain value. 

56. The Rise of Factories. — Aside from the household 
industries, like sj^inning and weaving, and the work in the 
Siiw-mills, grist-mills, and shipyards, there was very little 
manufacturing in Pennsylvania before the Revolution. 
It was the {X)licy of England to discourage it as far as 
j)ossil)le. During the war necessity was the mother of 
invention. The people had to make many things or do 
without them. In Philadelphia hundreds of people were 
employed in spinning flax and wool and in making linen 
and woolen cloth. The stockings of Germantown and 
Bethlehem were well known. Muskets were manufac- 
tured at Lancaster. Hut with the return of peace the 
American people again became dependent upon England 
for most manufactured goods. 



THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES loi 

The second half of the eighteenth century was a period 
of industrial revolution in England. Up to this time all 
manufacturing had been done by hand with the aid of very 
simple tools and machines. Now Arkwright invented a 
spinning-machine and Cartwright the power loom. About 
the same time James Watt made the steam-engine, thus 
providing power to drive the new machines. Soon Eli 
Whitney, in this country, invented the cotton gin. This 
made it possible to supply the demand of England for more 
cotton. These labor-saving machines and others like 
them changed the industrial and social life of England and 
America. Before this time manufacturing was carried on 
in homes or small shops. Now great factories were built 
and cities grew up about them. This factory system has 
played a great part in making the world what it is to-day. 

These great changes were taking place just as the United 
States was becoming a nation. In 1789 the members of 
Congress from Pennsylvania urged that duties upon im- 
ports should be so laid as to "protect our infant indus- 
tries." The real need at this time, however, was to 
secure machinery like that which England was using. 
This was difficult, as the English laws prohibited the expor- 
tation of machines. Tench Coxe, a Philadelphia manufac- 
turer, tried to procure a full set of Arkwright machinery, 
but the models were seized by the English custom officers. 
Samuel Slater, a skilled English artisan, brought the plans 
to America in his mind and built a cotton mill at Paw- 
tucket, Rhode Island. Soon a mill in Philadelphia was 
fitted with machinery for cotton, wool, and hemp. Woolen 
mills were set up at other places in the state, and merino 
sheep were imported from Spain. 



102 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

Thu ni[)i(l growth of American manufacturing dates 
from the Embargo Lawand the Warof i8i 2. When capital 
no longer found profitaljle investment in ships and cargoes 
it was used to build and equip factories. During the war 
r^nglish goods could not be imported and the American 
manufacturers had the market to themselves. Prices 
were high and manufacturing was greatly stimulated. In 
181 3 Pennsylvania stood first among the states in the 
value of its manufactured ])roducts. This place it held 
for some time, but l)efore i860 Xew York led the states 
in the value of manufactures, with Pennsylvania in second 
place. 

Upon the return of peace in 181 5 the American markets 
were flooded with foreign goods. At once there was an 
outcry from the men who had invested their capital in 
manufacturing. They contended that because of the 
high price they paid for labor and their lack of machinery 
they could not compete with the English manufacturers. 
Congress listened to them and passed the tariff law of 1816. 
This law {protected the manufacturers in this country by 
imposing a duty upon competing imported goods. This 
tax increased the cost of the foreign goods to the American 
consumer and in this way enabled the American goods to 
command a higher price. In 1824 the tariff was raised. 
• Because of its large manufacturing interests Pennsylvania 
was strongly in favor of liigli protection. In 1827 a con- 
vention at Harrisburg urged still higher duties, and the 
high tariff law of 1828 pleased Pennsylvania better than 
it did any other state. A high protective tariff and its 
dej)osits of coal and iron liave combined to make Pennsyl- 
vania the manufacturing state it has become. 



THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES I03 

57. The Use of Coal. — The existence of coal in Pennsyl- 
vania was known before the Revolution. In 1766 an- 
thracite coal was discovered in the Wyoming Valley, and 
two years later it was used in the forge fire of one of the 
blacksmiths in that region. In 1770 coal was found near 
Mahanoy and Shamokin, and during the following years 
its presence was noted in various sections of the state. 
The first settlers in Pittsburgh fed their fires with fuel dug 
from a bluff before the town. In 1776 the arsenal at 
Carlisle used coal which had been brought down the Sus- 
quehanna in boats from the Wyoming Valley to Harris- 
burg. This was the first shipment of anthracite coal ever 
made in America. 

In 1 791 a hunter made the first discovery of coal in the 
Lehigh region near the present town of Mauch Chunk. A 
specimen was sent to Philadelphia; the Lehigh Coal-mine 
Company was formed, and men were soon at work digging. 
With difficulty and loss some coal was brought down the 
Lehigh and the Delaware to Philadelphia, but the people 
did not know how to burn it, wood was plentiful, and the 
enterprise was abandoned. In 1804 the first boat load of 
bituminous coal from Clearfield county came down the 
Susquehanna River to Columbia. Within a few years this 
coal was sold in all the towns along the Susquehanna. It 
is claimed that coal was used in a blacksmith forge at Valley 
Forge as early as 1806. 

The real growth of the anthracite coal industry dates 
from the War of 181 2. The stimulus given to manufactur- 
ing at that time created a demand for a better and cheaper 
fuel. In 181 2 White and Hazard, who were engaged in 
wire making at the Falls of the Schuylkill, found out how 



104 HISTORY OF PENN'SVLNAXIA 

to use hard coal to advantaf^c in hcatin<^^ iron. With the 
rise of a considerable demand for coal the real difficulty 
was one of transportation. After a time this problem was 
solved by the canals and railroads. The anthracite coal 
fields were tapped by the Lehigh Canal in 1820 and by 
the Schuylkill Canal in 1825. The Philadelphia and 
Reading, the first of the great coal-carrying railroads, was 
chartered in 1833. In the meantime there was much 
experimenting with illuminating gas. Philadelphia began 
to Ix- lighted with gas in 1837. The first coke ovens were 
built at Connellsville in 1842. 

Pennsylvania has nearly all the anthracite coal in the 
United States in an area of less than five hundred square 
miles in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Carbon, Schuylkill, and 
Northumberland counties. The cities of Scranton and 
Wilkes Barre and many other busy towns have grown up in 
this region. ,A large part of the state west of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains is underlaid with some of the thickest 
beds of bituminous coal in the whole country. The great 
hive of industry which centers at Pittsburgh owes its 
existence in large part to this wealth of fuel. 

58. The Early Iron Industry. — Iron ore is found in many 
of the counties of Pennsylvania. Its presence was known 
to William Penn, who mentions "iron in divers places" as 
one of the resources of his province, and adds, "there is 
much of it." The first iron works in the colony were estab- 
lished by Thomas Rutter in 1 716 on Manatawney Creek, 
near Pottstown. About the same time an English Quaker 
named Samuel Nutt built a forge at Coventry, in the north- 
ern part of Chester county. Soon after this Nutt built a 
furnace on French Creek. This was the second furnace 



THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES 105 

in the province, one having been built a Httle earUer at 
Colebrookdale in Berks county. Forges and furnaces 
multiplied and soon pig iron was exported to England, 
v^hile pots, kettles, andirons, and similar articles were cast 
or forged for home use. Before 1776 there were foundries, 
rolling-mills, nail-works, and wire-mills in Pennsylvania. 

These early forges and foundries were small affairs, but 
growth continued after the Revolution. The iron works 
at Phoenixville date from 1 790. The same year the first 
iron furnace west of the x\lleghanies was opened in Fayette 
county. Before many years mills for the manufacture 
of sheet iron and nails were set up in the western part of 
the state. The first rolling-mill in the United States to roll 
iron bars was erected in Fayette county in 1816. In the 
meantime there was a marked development of the iron 
industry in the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and Berks in 
the east, and furnaces were at work in the Juniata Valley. 
The richest deposits of ore were found in the Cornwall 
mines near Lebanon. 

The first foundry at Pittsburgh was established in 1803, 
It was early seen that its fine facilities for water transporta- 
tion made Pittsburgh a natural center for the rising iron 
trade. The Monongahela and the Alleghany brought 
ores and fuel to the young city, while the Ohio carried the 
products of its mills and foundries to the growing west. 
At first charcoal had been used for fuel in smelting iron. 
The gradual introduction of the use of coal in the blast 
furnaces about 1840 revolutionized the iron industry. 
From that time the Pittsburgh region, with its well-nigh 
inexhaustible supplies of bituminous coal, was destined to 
be one of the great iron centers of the world. 



Io() HISTORY OK I'I:NNSVL\ ANIA 

59. Forests and Saw=mills. — "Penn's Woodland" was 
well named. Xo i)art of America has finer forests and 
few states have surpassed Pennsylvania as producers of 
lumber. From its earliest setdement there were saw-mills 
ujxjn its streams. The products of its forests were exported 
in the colonial period. Later the shipyards of Philadel- 
phia, Erie, and Pittsburgh used much timber. After 
1825 the canals brought great quantities of lumber to 
Philadelj^hia. 

A great expansion of the lumber industry came in re- 
six)nse to the demand created by the rise of factories, the 
making of machinery, and the building of railroads. Now 
vast forests of white pine and hemlock on the upper Sus- 
fjuehanna and its tributaries and the headwaters of the 
Allegheny and its branches were attacked. After 1840 the 
luml)er interest centered in Williamsport. Here a boom 
was built to liold the logs that the spring freshets in the 
rivers brought down in vast numbers from the pineries 
above. Many saw-mills converted these logs into lumber. 
For years Lock Haven was the second lumber town of the 
state. In i860 Pennsylvania stood first among the states 
in the numlx-r of ]um1)ering establishments and in the 
amount of cai)ital invested in the industry. While white 
j)ine imd hemlock have furnished a very large proportion of 
its lumber, large quantities of oak, maple, and chestnut 
have also been cut in the state. 

60. Petroleum and Natural Gas. — Petroleum was the 
last of the great natural resources of the state to be devel- 
oyx'd. The early French explorers noticed its existence 
and the Indians used it as a medicine. Later small 
(quantities of oil were collected from tlie streams, but it did 



THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES 107 

not become a commercial product until 1859, in which 
year Edwin L. Drake bored an oil well near Titusville 
which yielded twenty-five barrels a day by pumping. 
Many other wells were at once bored. Some of them 
proved to be "gushers" or flowing wells. The early oil 
industry of Pennsylvania was confined to Venango and its 
neighboring counties in the northwestern part of the state. 
Titusville, Oil City, and Bradford were the great oil centers. 
Some years later productive wells were opened in Washing- 
ton and Greene counties. 

Natural gas was frequently found in boring for oil, but 
at first it was allowed to go to waste. After 1870 it began 
to be used for heating residences and lighting streets, and 
about ten years later as a fuel in manufacturing establish- 
ments. The first well in the state opened expressly for 
gas was bored in 1878. Soon a great amount of gas was 
used for fuel. Pennsylvania has always been the largest 
consumer of natural gas of all the states. 



CHAPTER X 
THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTE/Vl 

61. Early Educational Conditions. — For fifty years after 
the Revolution proi^ress in education was slow in Pennsyl- 
vania. Some of the church schools of the colonial time 
ami others like lliem continued to do good work.^ But the 
mass of the people were too poor, too thinly scattered over 
a wide extent of territory, and many of them too indifferent 
to the value of education, to make the necessary effort to 
provide schools for their children. There were many 
educated men in the state, it is true, but a large part of the 
])eo])le, while forceful and energetic, were crude and ig- 
norant. 

The State Constitution of 1776 authorized the establish- 
ment of schools in each county "with such salaries to the 
masters paid by the public as may enable them to instruct 
youth at low prices." The article on education in the 
Constitution of 1790 provided that schools should be set 
uj) throughout the state "in such a manner that the poor 
may be taught gratis." By a series of laws beginning in 
1802 steps were taken to secure the free instruction of the 
j)oor. These laws fell far short of establishing a free school 
system. They tended rather to distinguish the children of 
the rich from those of the ])0()r. .Attendance Uj)on these 
"|)auj)er schools" was despised by the poor as a public 

' Section 24. 
(108) 



THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEJM 109 

badge of their poverty; the wealthy shunned them as de- 
grading. 

Dr. William Darlington, a prominent scientist of those 
early days, describes the country school-teachers of his 
time as "often low-bred, intemperate adventurers of the 
.Old World." Webster's Spelling-book and Readers, 
Daboll's Arithmetic, Lindley Murray's Grammar, and 
Morse's Geography were some of the text -books in common 
use. Joseph Lancaster, an English Quaker, had devised a 
plan by which one master could teach several hundred 
pupils. It was his method to instruct a select group of 
older children and then have them teach the other pupils 
under his supervision. In 1818 Lancaster was brought to 
Philadelphia and his system was tried there for several 
years, only to be finally abandoned. 

The leaders of public opinion in Pennsylvania were 
gradually coming to realize the backward state of education 
in the commonwealth. In 1831 the educational committee 
of the state House of Representatives summed up existing 
conditions as follows: "The private schools throughout the 
state have been found inadequate to the wants of the people. 
Where schools have been established complaints are made 
of their inefficiency owing to the want of competent teachers 
and of some system by which their better regulation may be 
secured." The previous year a committee of Philadelphia 
working men reached the same conclusions and suggested 
as a remedy the establishment of "a system of universal 
free and equal public education." 

62. The Great School Law of 1834.— Every governor of 
the state for forty years had urged upon the Legislature the 
need of better schools. Governor Hiester speaks for them 



no HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

all when he calls it "an imperative duty to introduce and 
supjx3rt a liberal system of education." But the people 
were indifferent, and in this matter the Legislature paid 
very little heed to the advice of the governors. 

Governor (k-orge Wolf, a teacher and an ardent friend 
of education, succeeded where others had failed. In his 
annual message of 1831 he said, "I am thoroughly per- 
suaded that there is not a single measure of all those which 
will engage your deliberation in the course of the session of 
such intrinsic importance to the general prosperity and 
ha])piness of the people of the Commonwealth as a general 
diffusion of the means of moral and intellectual cultivation 
among all classes of our citizens." Beyond providing a 
school fund this Legislature did nothing. But the people 
were waking up. Leading men were agitating the subject 
by speech and writing. Public meetings were held all over 
the state. Petitions for a better system of education were 
jHjuring in uj)on the Legislature. In 1832 the House of 
Representatives passed a school bill, but it w^as defeated in 
the Senate. The following year Governor Wolf made 
education the chief feature in his message, and on March 
15, 1834, the "Act toestablish a general system of education 
by common schools" was passed. This is the most im- 
fxjrtant event in the educational history of Pennsylvania. 

The passage of the act of 1834 was the beginning of free 
schools for the entire state. The law made each township 
or borough in the state a school district and provided for 
the election of directors. The county courts were to ap- 
jx^int inspectors whose duty it was to visit the schools and 
to examine and grant certificates to teachers. At first the 
districts were not required to establish schools, but if they 



THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM iii 

did not they should receive no part of the state appropria- 
tion or of the county tax. 

63. Thaddeus Stevens, the Champion of Education. — 

With the passage of the law of 1834 it seemed that the 
fight for free schools was won. As a matter of fact, it had 
just begun. When the districts came to decide whether 
they would accept the act and establish schools there was a 
bitter contest. The ignorant, the selfish, and the conserva- 
tive people of the state opposed a free school system. The 
Germans and the Friends took the same position. They 
were opposed to separating the school from the church. 
Many of the German churches and the Friends' meetings 
had their own schools and naturally did not want to see 
them destroyed. The opposition in the German counties 
was the most stubborn and successful. At first only about 
one-half the districts in the state accepted the law and 
organized schools. 

The enemies of the new school law now resolved to de- 
stroy it. They made the school question an issue in the 
election of members of the Legislature, and sent to Harris- 
burg a body of men opposed to free schools. The Senate 
made quick work and by a vote of nearly two to one sent 
to the House of Representatives a bill repealing the act 
of 1834. The House was said to contain a majority of 
thirty in favor of the repeal and the friends of the schools 
were well-nigh hopeless. 

Fortunately in this moment of its peril the free school 
system found a worthy champion. Thaddeus Stevens, a 
native of Vermont, who had come to Pennsylvania as a 
teacher and later had studied law, was a representative 
from Adams county. In his old age he was to be the 



112 HIbTORV OF PENNSYLVANIA 

dominant niLiiibcrof the national Hoiiscof Representatives 
in tlie reconstruction (jf the southern states after the Civil 
War. Now in the prime of manhood he led the free school 
forces with a ])ersuasive eloquence which saved the school 
law of 1834 from being swej)t from the statute book. In 
the great debate upon the question of repeal he concluded 
one of the most convincing speeches ever made in Penn- 
sylvania with these words: 

"Who would not rather do one living deed than to have 
his ashes enshrined in ever burnished gold? Sir, I trust 
that when we come to act on this question, we shall take 
lofty ground — look beyond the narrow space which nowr 
circumscribes our vision — beyond the passing, fleeting 
]x)int of time on which we stand — and so cast our votes 
that the blessings of education shall be conferred upon 
every son of Pennsylvania — shall be carried home to the 
poorest child of the poorest inhabitant of the meanest hut 
of your mountains, so that even he may be prepared to act 
well his part in this land of freemen, and lay on earth a 
broad and solid foundation for that enduring knowledge 
which goes on increasing through increasing eternity." 

Under the eloquent leadership of Thaddeus Stevens the 
repeal of the law of 1834 w^as not only defeated, but the 
Legislature was persuaded to pass an act simplifying and 
strengthening the free school system. The loyal support 
given the cause of popular education by Governor Wolf 
and by his successor. Governor Ritner, greatly aided in 
bringing about this result. 

64. The School System Grows.— The passage of this new 
and luttcr school hiw in 1836 marks the real foundation of 
the common school system of the state. At this time the 



THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM 113 

secretary of the commonwealth acted as superintendent 
of common schools. From 1835 to 1838 this office was 
filled by Thomas H. Burrowes, whose zeal and ability as 
an organizer and whose lifelong devotion to the cause of 
public education give him a foremost place among the 
benefactors of the state. At first there was much opposi- 
tion to the schools and for some years progress was slow. 
The course of study was meager, teachers were often 
without preparation for their work and always very poorly 
paid. 

The need of reform began to be clearly seen by 1850, and 
the next ten years witnessed the rapid growth of the school 
system. In 1852 the first number of the Pennsylvania 
School Journal appeared, and before the end of the same 
year the State Teachers' Association was organized. A 
great forward step was taken in 1854 when the office of 
county superintendent of schools was created. Three 
years later the state superintendency of schools was made a 
separate office and a law providing for the training of 
teachers in normal schools was passed. 

In 1866 James P. Wickersham was appointed state 
superintendent of common schools. Though but little 
past forty years of age, Mr. Wickersham had been a teacher 
in the common schools, the principal of Marietta Academy, 
the first county superintendent of Lancaster county, and 
the founder of the first State Normal School. He was the 
greatest educational leader that Pennsylvania has ever had. 
For the next fifteen years every part of the school system 
felt the quickening touch of his spirit. The yearly expendi- 
tures for school purposes were increased nearly threefold ; 
the state appropriations to common schools went up nearly 



114 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

as much; many school-houses were built; provision was 
made for city and borout^h superintendents; teachers 
salaries were advanced, and the length of the school term 
was increased. 

The most striking feature of American educational de- 
velopment during the past forty years has been the estab- 
lishment and rai)id growth of high schools. The Central 
High School for boys in Philadelphia, the first one in the 
slate, was founded in 1837, and three years later that city 
ojx,'ned a similar school for girls. Pittsburgh, Easton, 
and other cities early established high schools, but because 
of the existence of many private academies in the state the 
demand for them did not begin to be general until Super- 
intendent W'ickersham's time. Since then they have 
sprung uj) with marvelous rapidity, until now practically 
every city and borough and many townships have schools 
of this grade. Nor has the state been neglectful of its 
flefective and (k])endent children. Liberal appropria- 
tions have been made for schools for the deaf, the blind, 
the feeble minded, and for the orphans of soldiers of the 
Civil War. 

65. The Old Time School. — Side by side with the growth 
of the school system there has gone on a similar develop- 
ment in the spirit and work of the school itself. Instead 
of a school term of from seven to ten months the children 
of seventy- five years ago were fortunate if they saw the 
inside of a school-house for three months in a year. As 
a mle this school-house was unpainted and dingy, and 
scantily furnished with a few narrow, .rickety benches. 
Sometimes a slab or plank fastened against the wall 
served as a desk. Maps, charts, and blackboards were 




JAIMES P. WICKERSHAM. 

(B. F. Saylor, photographer.) 



Il6 HISTORY OF I'KNXSYLVAXIA 

almost unknown. In this school the master — in those 
days it was far more often a master than a mistress — 
ruled with a hand of iron. Punisliment was swift and 
certain. It mi.t^ht be a box on the ear, the ferule on the 
hand, or the rod on the back. Some teachers were inge- 
nious in devisinj.^ unusual punishments, such as holding out 
a book at arm's length or standing in a stooping posture 
with the finger on the head of a nail in the floor. 

'!"hr teacliing was as old fashioned as the discipline. 
The beginner spent some weeks in learning the names of 
the letters of the alphabet. He was then promoted to the 
spelling book, in which the first lessons were made up of 
long lists of syllables beginning with ah, eh, ib, or ra, sa, 
ta . These lists must be committed to memory. The words 
in the s[)eller were grouped according to their number of 
syllables. The advanced classes were spelling words like 
these, all taken from a single lesson in one of the old 
s])ellers, metempsychosis, papilionaceous, pharmaco- 
poeia. After the spelling book came the Reader. The rules 
for good reading were short and definite: read fast, mind 
the stops and marks, and speak up loud. Whether the 
j)Uj)il understood what he read did not matter. Writing 
was done with cjuill pens, which the master made and 
mended. There might be a little grammar and geography, 
but the crown of the old time course of study w^as arith- 
mitic. Here the children committed to memory the rules 
in the book and then "ciphered." The boy w^ho had 
cij)here(l through the Rule of Three was supposed to have 
arithmetic enough for the common purposes of life. If 
he went clear through the Miscellaneous Questions in 
the back of the book he was thought to have a genius for 



THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM 117 

figures. We smile now at the school of our grandfathers, 
but many earnest boys and girls attended it, and out of it 
came much sound learning and many strong and noble 
characters. 

66. The Training of Teachers. — The need of better 
teachers was early recognized in Pennsylvania, though the 
state as a whole was slow in making adequate provision for 
their training. Many of the early academies and semi- 
naries were founded in part to qualify teachers for the com- 
mon schools. A little later it was the policy of the state 
to grant money to academies and colleges on the condition 
that they train a certain number of teachers. The Phila- 
delphia Model School, opened in 1818, was probably the 
first school in the United States specially established to 
prepare teachers for their work. This school grew into 
the Philadelphia Normal School for girls. Every state 
superintendent of common schools from the time of Thomas 
H. Burrowes recommended the establishment of State 
Normal Schools, but it was not until 1857 that such schools 
were authorized by law. Under the influence of James P. 
Wickersham, then superintendent of schools in Lancaster 
county, a county normal school had been opened at 
Millersville in 1855, and four years later this school became 
the first State Normal School in Pennsylvania. Since 
that time the number has grown until now the state has 
thirteen flourishing training-schools for teachers. A few 
of the cities maintain training-schools of their own. Some 
of the State Normal Schools, like Mansfield, Kutztown, 
and West Chester, grew out of earlier academies; others, 
like Shippensburg and Indiana, originated in the generous 
action of the communities in which they are located; all 



n8 llIMokV OK I'KNNSVLXANIA 

of ihcm were made jjussiblc by the subscriptions of public 
sj)iriti.'(l citizens. Tiie Normal Schools of Pennsylvania 
are jirivate institutions recognized and aided by the state. 

The Normal Schools have not been the only agencies in 
the training of teachers. Educational papers and books, 
teachers' associations, local and state, and the county 
institutes have all had their part in this work. Among 
b{x)ks on teaching written by Pennsylvanians those of 
James P. W'ickersham and Edward Brooks are especially 
noteworthy. Mr. Wickersham is the author of the stand- 
ard history of education in the state. 

67. Colleges and Universities. — We have seen^ how the 
first college of the state grew up in Philadel])hia. Its 
fortunes were at a low ebb during the Revolution, but in 
1 791 it entered upon its career as the University of Penn- 
sylvania. This university did not become a vigorous 
institution, however, until the days of Provost Stille, after 
the Civil War. To its early departments of arts, law, and 
medicine others have been added from time to time, until 
now almost all branches of learning can be studied in it. 
The University of Pennsylvania is now one of the foremost 
seats of learning in America. Other worthy state edu- 
cational institutions of later date are the University of 
Pittsburgh, and State College, a great school of agriculture 
and engineering in Centre county. 

Pennsylvania has more than thirty colleges, large and 
small. Most of them owe their origin to the zeal for 
learning of the various religious denominations. Among 
several colleges founded by the Presbyterians are Dickin- 
son, at Carlisle, Allegheny, at Meadville, and Lafayette, at 

' Section 24. 



THE RISE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM liQ 

Easton. Dickinson and Allegheny later passed into the 
hands of the Methodists. The Reformed Church con- 
trols Franklin and Marshall, at Lancaster. Bucknell 
University, at Lewisburg, was founded by the Baptists, and 
Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, by the Lutherans. 
Among several worthy Catholic colleges are St. Thomas, at 
Villanova, in Delaware county, and St. Vincent, in West- 
moreland county. The Friends are justly proud of 
Haverford and Swarthmore. Lehigh University, at Beth- 
lehem, is a monument to the generous public spirit of Asa 
Packer, whose gifts have richly endowed it. Bryn Mawr is 
one of the leading colleges for women in America. Lin- 
coln University, in Chester county, provides a liberal edu- 
cation for colored men. There are a number of other 
small but useful colleges in the state, while Philadelphia is 
a centre of education in medicine, in design and industrial 
art, and in business. 



CHAPTER XI 
SLAVERY AND POLITICS 

68. The Early Anti=slavery Record of Pennsylvania. — 

The Quakers were among the earliest enemies of human 
slavery. Years before the Revolution, John Woolman, one 
of their j)reachers, spoke and wrote against it with great 
power. The first anti-slavery society in America was 
formed in Philadelphia in 1775. It at once began to ask 
the Legislature to set the slaves free, and, as we have seen, 
this was soon done by the gradual emancipation act of 
1 780. Hien by protest and petition the Friends began the 
long struggle for freedom for all men in the nation. Rep- 
resentatives of Pennsylvania spoke in no uncertain tone 
against the slave trade and against the stealing of free 
negroes under the pretense that they were runaway slaves. 
At the time of the Missouri Compromise the senators and 
representatives from Pennsylvania stoutly resisted the 
extension of slavery into the territory beyond the Missis- 
si] )pi and by a unanimous vote the Legislature of the state 
apj)rove(l their course. 

The American Anti-slavery Society was organized in 
Philadelphia in 1833. It declared "that the slaves ought 
instantly to be set free and brought under the protection of 
the law." Its members sought with voice and pen to 
arouse the people against the evils of slavery. For a 
time John G. Whittier, the poet of the anti-slavery cause, 
was the editor of an abolition paper in Philadelphia. 

(120) 



SLAVERY AND POLITICS I2i 

Many people in Pennsylvania were bitterly opposed to the 
work of the abolitionists. The politician eager to curry 
favor with the south, the merchant anxious to protect his 
southern market, the timid citizen who feared that the 
discussion of the slavery question might disturb the peace 
of the country, the rabble in the cities hating the negro and 
always ready for a riot, all agreed in their desire to silence 
the anti-slavery leaders. Mobs broke up their meetings, 
destroyed their printing presses, and sometimes wrecked 
their houses. The streets of Philadelphia witnessed many 
of these riotous scenes. In one such affair in that city 
forty-four houses were damaged or destroyed. Finding it 
difficult to rent halls for their meetings, the anti-slavery 
men built a meeting-place of their own, called Pennsyl- 
vania Hall. Shortly after it was completed in 1838 this 
building was burned by a mob. 

During these years when so many northern men were 
willing to yield to the southern demand that all anti-slavery 
agitation be suppressed. Governor Ritner spoke out boldly 
in defense of free speech: "Let us," he said, "never 
yield the right of free discussion of any evil that may arise 
in the land or in any part of it." wSome of the anti-slavery 
leaders thought that they ought to take the question of 
abolition into politics. In 1840 these men formed the 
Liberty party, and nominated James G. Birney, a native 
of Kentucky, for president and Thomas Earle, of Penn- 
sylvania, for vice-president. Only about seven thousand 
votes were cast for this ticket, but in 1844 the Liberty 
party polled over sixty thousand votes. In 1845 James 
Russell Lowell came to Philadelphia to live and there 
began his vigorous anti-slavery writing. 



122 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

09. State Politics. — Party feeling ran very high at the 
first election under the Constitution of 1838, and Governor 
Ritner was defeated by David R. Porter, the candidate of 
the Democrats. Both parties claimed a majority in the 
House of Representatives, and there was a long and disor- 
derly wrangle over the organization of that body. A crowd 
of excited ]K)liticians gathered at Harrisburg, and the gov- 
ernor, fearing violence, called out a small force of militia. 
Some bucksh(jt cartridges intended for these troops were 
captured and distributed as souvenirs. Because of this 
incident the whole affair is known as the "Buckshot War." 
It was settled without bloodshed. 

There was a great financial panic in the United States in 
1837, and for some years the whole country suffered from 
hard times. Pennsylvania had borrowed heavily to build 
canals and railroads, and it was necessary to continue to 
borrow in order to extend and re]:)air these public works. 
In 1842 there was no money in the treasury to pay the 
interest on the bonds. The state suffered in reputation for 
a time, but in the end every dollar of its debt was paid. 
The management of the canals and railroads by the state 
proved to be a source of much political corruption. The 
party in power used the employees to help control elections, 
and so managerl the business of these public works as to 
favor its frirnds and injure its enemies. P'or these reasons 
the people came to feel that these highways of commerce 
ouglit not to be owned by the state, and finally they were 
all sold to private companies. 

After serving two terms Governor Porter gave way to 
another Democrat, Francis R. Shunk, of Pittsburgh. 
Early in his second term Governor Shunk resigned because 



SLAVERY AND POLITICS 1 23 

of ill health and soon afterward died. By the terms of 
the Constitution of 1838 William F. Johnston, the speaker 
of the Senate, became acting governor. He was a Whig, 
and when, in 1848, Pennsylvania gave her vote to Zachary 
Taylor for president, the popularity of that hero of the 
Mexican War helped the Whigs to elect Mr. Johnston 
governor for a full term. In 1852 the Democrats re- 
turned to power and William Bigler, of Clearfield, became 
governor. 

70. Pennsylvanians in the Service of the Nation. — Dur- 
ing the first sixty years of the nineteenth century the office 
of secretary of the treasury was held nearly half the time by 
citizens of Pennsylvania. Albert Gallatin was succeeded 
by Alexander J. Dallas, who founded the second Bank of 
the United States. Richard Rush, who had been attorney- 
general and minister to England, had charge of the treasury 
in the cabinet of John Quincy Adams. Mr. Rush was de- 
feated for the vice-presidency in 1828 and later was min- 
ister to France. Samuel D. Ingham was Andrew Jack- 
son's first secretary of the treasury, and William J. Duane 
was removed from that office by the same president be- 
cause he refused to order the government deposits removed 
from the Bank of the United States. Walter Forward was 
appointed head of the treasury department by President 
Harrison, and William j\I. ^Meredith was given the same 
position by President Taylor. 

Several other Pennsylvanians held cabinet positions 
during this period. Among them were William Jones, 
secretary of the navy during the War of 181 2; James M. 
Porter and William Wilkins, secretaries of war in Presi- 
dent Tyler's cabinet; James Campbell, President Pierce's 



124 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

|X)st master-general; and Henry 1). Gili)in and Jeremiah S. 
Black, attorneys-i^eneral. Mr. Black was also secretary 
of state for a short time near the close of Buchanan's 
administration. Henry Baldwin and Robert C. Grier 
were associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. 

(jeorge M. Dallas, a son of Alexander J. Dallas, was 
chosen vice-president in 1844. The state sent many 
strong men to Congress. Charles J. Ingersoll, of Phila- 
delj)hia, was a leader in the House of Representatives just 
before the Mexican War. The longest term of service of 
any Pennsylvania senator before i860 was that of Daniel 
Sturgeon. He was called "the silent senator." Although 
a hard worker on committees. Senator Sturgeon made but 
one si)eech in the Senate and that speech contained only 
one sentence: "Any Senator who says anything that would 
tiiid to disruption of the Union is a black-hearted vil- 
lain." 

The most eminent Pennsylvania statesman of these 
years was James Buchanan. Born in Franklin county, 
educated at Dickinson College, in early life a Federalist, 
Mr. lUichanan became an ardent follower of President 
Jackson, and from his time was one of the leaders of the 
Democratic party. After a term in Congress he was sent 
as minister to Russia. He was United States senator from 
1833 to 1845, when President Polk a])])ointe(l him secre- 
tary of state. He was our minister to f^ngland during 
the term of President Pierce, and in 1856 his party 
elected him the fifteenth president of the United States. 
He is the only son of Pennsylvania who ever held that 
oflkc. 




JAMES BUCHANAN. 



126 IllMokN ()!• ri:\NSYL\ ANIA 

71. The Mexican War and the Wilmot Proviso. — Presi- 
dent Polk's i)ur{)()sc to ac(iuire California and other terri- 
tory in the southwest brou,<i;ht on the war with Mexico in 
1846. Althoiii^h Pennsylvania had given her electoral 
vote to Polk, this war was distasteful to many of her citi- 
zens, who were oi)})osed to any further extension of slave 
territory. 'Phe contest was popular with some, however, ' 
and to the call for six regiments enough men responded 
to form nine. Only two Pennsylvania regiments were 
mustered into the service and they gave a good account 
of themselves in every battle from Vera Cruz to the City 
of Mexico. 

During the Mexican War one Pennsylvanian wrote his 
name on an enduring and honorable page of the nation's 
history. When the ])resident urged Congress to appro- 
priate a large sum of money to be used in acquiring ter- 
ritory from Mexico, David Wilmot, of Towanda, a Demo- 
cratic representative, moved that "neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the 
Siiid territory." The Wilmot Proviso did not pass, but 
it became the rallying cry of all free state men who op- 
posed any further extension of slavery in the territories. 

72. The Fugitive Slave Law and the Underground Rail- 
road. The Constitution of the United States provided for 
the return of slaves escaping from one state into another. 
In 1 793 Congress passed the first fugitive slave law to carry . 
this provision into elTect. At that time John Sergeant, a 
Pennsylvania member of the House of Representatives, 
tried in vain to have the judges of the state in which a negro 
was seized as a runaway decide upon his freedom before he 
was returned to his master. Later the state passed a law 



SLAVERY AND POLITICS 1 27 

imposing a heavy penalty upon kidnappers who tried to 
steal free negroes and sell them in the South. There was 
always much sympathy and help given to fugitive slaves 
in this state. In 182 1 a Maryland master and his overseer 
who had traced a runaway slave to Kennett Square lost 
their lives in an effort to retake him. Alany slaves escaped 
to Pennsylvania; very few of them were ever returned to 
the South. 

After the Mexican War slavery became the leading ques- 
tion in American politics. One part of the famous com- 
promise of 1850 w^as a new and more stringent fugitive 
slave law\ By this act the simple affidavit of the person 
w^ho claimed a negro was all the evidence of ownership 
required. The fugitive was not given a trial by jury and 
could not testify in his own behalf. One clause read: "All 
good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in 
the prompt and efficient execution of this law." The fugi- 
tive slave law of 1850 raised a storm of protest in the North 
and some of the efforts to enforce it were resisted by force. 

The most serious case of such resistance in Pennsyl- 
vania occurred at Christiana, in Lancaster county. A 
Maryland slave owner, accompanied by his son and a 
United States officer, traced some fugitives to the house of 
a negro named Parker. At a signal from the house a 
number of armed negroes gathered from the neighborhood, 
and the attempt to arrest the fugitives led to a fight in 
which the master was killed and his son wounded. In 
the meantime the slaves whom they were seeking escaped. 
Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, two Quakers who re- 
fused to help the officer when summoned to do so, were 
arrested, and Hanway was tried for treason and acquitted. 



128 HISTORY OF rEXXSVLVAXIA 

Such attempts to enforce the fugitive slave law only inten- 
sified the hatred of it and of slavery in the North. This 
feeling led many northern states, Pennsylvania among 
them, to ])ass ])ersonal liberty laws whose object was to 
prevent the return of runaway slaves. 

For years the anti-slavery people in the North had been 
helj)ing runaway slaves to escape to Canada by hiding 
them in their houses or barns by day and sending them on 
at night to an(Hher place of refuge. The roads along 
which fugitive slaves were guided by these men who were 
banded together to aid them came to be called the "Under- 
ground Railroad." Such routes could be found all the 
way from New England to Kansas. Some of them 
crossed western Pennsylvania, and nowhere were they 
more numerous than in the southeastern part of the state. 
Many ()uaker homes in Chester and Lancaster counties 
were stations on this "railroad." Some of the fugitives 
were sent on to Canada. More of them remained in 
Philadel|)hia and the neighboring counties. The work of 
the Underground Railroad strengthened the anti-slavery 
feeling throughout the North and at the same time angered 
tlu' slave owners of the South. It was thus one of the 
forces which helj)e(l to l)ring on the Civil War. 

73. The Native American Movement. — About 1840 there 
began to be a strong feeling against foreigners who were 
coming to America in increasing numbers. A native 
American })arty s|)rang u]) which held that foreign born 
citizens ought not to be elected to oflke. This anti-for- 
eign feeling was caused in part by the hostility between 
Catholics and Protestants over the question of reading the 
bible in the public schools. In 1844 a riot broke out over 



SLAVERY AND POLITICS 129 

this question in Kensington, near Philadelphia. This 
disturbance lasted for days and soldiers were called out. 
Later there were similar riots in Southwark, another sub- 
urb of Philadelphia. The lawless conditions in Phila- 
delphia at this time were in part due to the fact that the 
real city had far outgrown the limits of the original city of 
Penn's time. The government of the oudying districts 
was often inefficient. In 1854 the city was enlarged so as 
to include all of the county of Philadelphia. 

The famine in Ireland in 1846 and a revolution in Ger- 
many in 1848 sent many thousands of people from those 
countries to America. Their coming quickened the growth 
of the American party, whose members now began to be 
called ''Know Nothings" because they would tell nothing 
about their secret organization. Their chief objects were 
to prevent foreigners from being too speedily naturalized 
and to elect only native born Americans to office. In 1854, 
with the help of the Whigs, whose party was breaking up 
over the slavery question, the Americans elected James 
Pollock, of Northumberland county, to the governorship of 
Pennsylvania by a large majority. The Know Nothing 
movement was short lived. In 1857 the American party 
cast less than eight per cent, of the vote in Pennsylvania, 
and William F. Packer, a Democrat, was chosen governor 
of the state. 

74. The Rise of the Republican Party. — The passage of 
the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 was the signal for the 
formation of a new political party to oppose the further 
extension of slavery in the territories. During the next 
two years the little band of Free Soilers who had long op- 
posed slavery, the larger part of the northern Whigs, and 



I30 HISTORY or PENNSYLVANIA 

many anti-slavery Democrats were welded together into the 
Re])ublican party. The new party held its first national 
convention in Phila(lelj)hia in 1856 and nominated John 
C. Fremont for president, but he was defeated by James 
Buchanan, the Democratic candidate. 

During,' President Buchanan's administration the Dred 
Scott decision which opened all the territories to slavery, 
the border warfare in Kansas between the free state men 
and the slave state men, and John Brown's raid at Harper's 
Ferry were rapidly widening the breach between the North 
and the South. In the meantime the Republican party was 
steadily gathering strength. In October, i860, it elected 
Andrew G. Curtin governor of Pennsylvania, and a month 
later its great leader, Abraham Lincoln, was chosen presi- 
dent of the United States. The secession of the southern 
states at once began. The great struggle for the life of 
the nation was at hand. 



CHAPTER XII 
PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR 

75. The Stirring Days of 1861.— The election of Abraham 
Lincoln was the signal for the secession of South Carolina. 
Before the new president was inaugurated seven states 
in the far south had withdrawn from the Union and formed 
a new Confederacy. President Buchanan was a patriotic 
man, but he was old and timid, and at first he was misled 
by disloyal advisers. He believed that he had no right to 
interfere with the course of affairs in the South. The first 
steps toward secession aroused a strong feehng in Pennsyl- 
vania that something should be done to conciliate the slave- 
holding section of the country. Governor Packer sug- 
gested the repeal of the liberty laws of the state. With the 
failure of all efforts at compromise this feeling passed away 
and it soon became clear that the Keystone State was in- 
tensely loyal to the Union. The feeble attitude of Presi- 
dent Buchanan toward the seceded states was greatly 
strengthened during the closing weeks of his administration 
by the influence of a new secretary of state, Jeremiah S. 
Black, of York, one of the greatest lawyers and noblest 
men in the annals of Pennsylvania. 

On the way to his inauguration Lincoln passed through 
Pennsylvania. In a speech in Independence Hall, on 
February 22d, he said, 'T am filled with deep emotion at 
finding myself standing in this place, where were collected 
together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to prin- 
ciple from which sprang the institutions under which we 

(131) V 



132 HISTORY OV PENNSYLVANIA 

liw. I would rather be assassinated on this spot than 
surrender tliat sentiment in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence which <^ave liberty, not alone to the people of this 
country, but hope to the world, for all future time." In 
the evening of the same day Lincoln yielded to the entreat- 
ies of his friends, who feared an attempt to kill him if he 
passed through Baltimore publicly, and went secretly from 
Harrisburg to Washington. On the 4th of March, 1861, 
he became president of the United States. A few^ anxious 
weeks followed, and then, on April 13th, after a bombard- 
ment of thirty-four hours. Fort Sumter surrendered. The 
war had come. 

The fall of Fort Sumter stirred the North like a bugle 
call. The people arose as one man. "The Union shall 
be preserved" was the resolve of every heart. On April 
15th President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand 
volunteers. There was an instant response by many more 
than that number. Three days after the president's call 
was received five companies of Pennsylvania troops forced 
their way through a howling mob of Southern sympathizers 
in Baltimore and the same evening reached Washington. 
These Pennsylvanians, the first defenders to reach the 
national capital, were the vanguard of the mighty host that 
yx)un.'(l southw^ard for four long years. 

During the years before 1861 the militia system of 
Pennsylvania had fallen into decay. No state in the 
Union was less ])repared for w^ar, but energy and fervent 
patriotism soon made good this lack of preparation. The 
state had been asked for fourteen regiments. Before the 
end of April, twenty-five Pennsylvania regiments had gone 
to tln' front. This was only the beginning. Before the 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR 133 

war was over two hundred and fifteen regiments had gone 
out from the Keystone State. No state has a prouder 
record in the war for the Union. 

76. The Great War Governor and His Work. — No men 
did more to uphold the hands of President Lincoln during 
the long struggle with the South than the governors of 
the loyal states. Among these famous "war governors" no 
name stands higher than that of Andrew G. Curtin. Of 
Irish parentage, a native and lifelong resident of Bellefonte, 
active in politics from his youth, Mr. Curtin had been 
Governor Pollock's secretary of the commonwealth and 
superintendent of common schools, in which position he 
did much to reform and develop the school system of the 
state. His zeal, energy, and great ability made him a fit 
leader for Pennsylvania in the crisis of 1861. 

From the first Governor Curtin urged the suppression of 
secession by force. In his inaugural address he declared 
that ''Pennsylvania would under any circumstances render 
a full and determined support of the free institutions of the 
Union." He promptly sent Lincoln's call for troops to 
every part of the state, and when recruits came pouring 
into Harrisburg from every direction a camp bearing the 
Governor's name was established near that city. Camp 
Curtin was a great military station from which soldiers and 
supplies went out as long as the war lasted. Many more 
men than had been asked from Pennsylvania responded to 
the first call for troops. Foreseeing the future need Gov- 
ernor Curtin organized these men into a reserve corps to be 
held in readiness for any emergency. The call for them 
soon came, and as the Pennsylvania Reserves they made a 
splendid record on many a hard-fought field. 



134 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

For four years Governor Curtin never relaxed his activity 
in organizing troojjs and pushing them to the front with 
speed wlien tlie calls for them came. He was equally 
untiring in his efforts for the comfort of the Pennsylvania 
soldiers in the field and for their care when sick or wounded. 
Nor (lid he forget the children of those who were slain in 
battle. It was through his efforts that schools were estab- 
lished for the care and education of soldier's orphans. It 
is no wonder that he was known to the men in the ranks as 
"the soldier's friend." 

77. The Story of Gettysburg. — Thrice during the war the 
soil of Pennsylvania was invaded by the Confederates. 
In October, 1862, their famous cavalry leader, Stuart, 
raided Franklin county, took a large number of horses, 
and looted the stores of Chambersburg. Nearly two years 
later, in July, 1864, a Confederate force again seized 
Chambersburg and demanded five hundred thousand 
dollars. When this was refused the town was burned and 
three thousand people were left homeless. 

The great invasion of the state came in 1863. The pre- 
ceding September General Lee had tried to carry the war 
into the North, but the battle of Antietam, in Maryland, 
had rluckc'd his advance and he had returned to Virginia. 
Now at the head of a splendid army, flushed with victory 
.and devoted to its great leader, Lee determined to invade 
Pennsylvania, to gather supplies for his army from its rich 
farms, and, if i)ossible, to strike a blow that would end the 
war and thus establish the independence of the Southern 
Confedenicy. 

Starting cady in June from the neighborhood of Freder- 
icksburg, Virginia, Lee's army, eighty thousand strong. 




ANDREW G. CURTIN. 



136 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

pushed westward through the gaps of the Blue Ridge into 
the Shenandoah Valley and then swept rapidly down that 
valley, over the Potomac, and across INIaryland into the 
Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania. The main body of 
the Confederate army paused near Cham.bersburg, but 
advance divisions occupied Carlisle and York and threat- 
ened Harrisburg and Columbia. A small force of Federal 
tr()oi)S burned the bridge over the Susc^uehanna at Wrights- 
ville near Columbia, thus stopping the Confederate ad- 
vance at the bank of that river. General Lee now ordered 
his army to concentrate and its widely scattered parts 
began to march toward Gettysburg. 

The coming of the Confederates brought consternation 
to the people of the invaded counties. Horses and cattle 
were driven away to save them from capture. Farm wagons 
laden with valuables pushed on ahead of the rapidly 
apj)roaching enemy. Many of the people abandoned 
their homes and sought places of safety. Valuable papers 
and books were removed from the capital of the state. 
Even in the counties east of the Susquehanna much prop- 
erty was concealed in anticipation of invasion. Mean- 
while men were at work upon the fortifications opposite 
Harrisburg, and the militia of the state was rapidly gather- 
ing for the defense of the capital and to help repel the in- 
vaders. 

In the meantime the Union army, more than ninety 
thousand strong, under General Hooker, was moving 
northward in such a way as to protect the threatened cities 
of Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. On June 
27th General Hooker resigned and the next day General 
George G. Meade was appointed to command the army. 



1 


^^8P^ 




1 


llgl 


^>twv'gal 


^ 


1^^ -— «fl 


Bj^ 


;^IH 


HP 


^kSHhHIR^ .^sHH^^ 


w 







GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 



138 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

An advance guard of Union cavalry under General Buford 
occupied Gettysburg on the 30th of June and the next 
morning met the aj)proaching Confederates west of the 
town. Here began the most famous battle ever fought on 
American soil. 

In 1863 Gettysburg was a little town of twenty-five 
hundred people, lying in the midst of a peaceful farming 
region. To the west the blue line of the South Mountain 
stands out sharp and clear in the distance. Near the 
western limits of the town, and trending slightly to the 
southwest, lies Seminary Ridge. From the southern 
border of the town rises Cemetery Hill, which is prolonged 
southward as Cemetery Ridge. Some three miles south 
of Gettysburg, Cemetery Ridge rises suddenly into a steep, 
rocky hill called Little Round Top. Just beyond Litde 
Round Top is Round Top, a higher and forest-covered 
elevation. Between the two ridges named there is a beau- 
tiful valley with cultivated fields and here and there a farm- 
house. About half a mile west of Cemetery Ridge and well 
to the south in this valley lies a lower ridge crowned with a 
peach orchard. West of the Round Tops the ground is 
broken and partly wooded. Cemetery Hill curves back 
and falls away toward the southeast, and then rises in a bold 
and rocky diff called Gulp's Hill. Many roads radiate 
fnjm the town like the spokes of a wheel. Along these roads 
the Confederates were marching toward Gettysburg from 
the west, iIh- north, and the cast. The Union army was 
hurrying up from the south. 

(^n the morning of July ist Buford with his cavalry force 
held the Confederates in check west of the town until the 
first corps of the Union army arrived and formed a stronger 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR 



139 



line of battle. Its commander, General Reynolds, was 
killed as the battle opened. For hours the fight raged furi- 
ously along this line. The losses were fearful. Several 
Pennsylvania regiments formed part of the "one thin line" 
which here repulsed the charging Confederate hosts. At 
least three of them, 




the 149th, 150th, 
and 1 51st, lost over 
fifty per cent, of 
their number, and 
in three others, the 
i2ist, i42d, and 
143d, the losses 
were almost a s 
great. About 
noon the eleventh 
corps of the Union 
army reached Get- 
tysburg. Leaving 
one division to for- 
tify Cemetery Hill, 
General Howard 
advanced through 
the town to meet 
the Confederates 
who were now 
approaching from 
the north. Because its divisions were marching toward 
a common center the Confederate army reached the battle- 
field sooner than the widely scattered corps of the army of 
the Union. After fighting stubbornly until the late after- 



I40 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

noon the Union forces \vcst and north of Gettysburg were 
compelled by superior numbers to abandon their position 
and withdraw to a stronger one on Cemetery Hill. Here 
a new battle line was formed by General Hancock who 
had been sent fon\ard to represent General Meade. The 
Confederates contented themselves with occupying the 
town and holding the positions they had taken. Thus 
ended the first day. 

All night the Union troojjs came swarming in from the 
southward. General Meade reached the field at one 
o'clock in the morning. There was no fighting on July 2d 
until the afternoon was well advanced. Lee was planning 
his attack and Meade preparing for the defense. Instead 
of permanently occupying Cemetery Ridge General Sickles, 
who led the Union left wing, threw it forward to the peach 
orchard. This was the weak point in the Union line, and in 
the afternoon Tee's great lieutenant, Longstreet, struck 
it hard. For hours the tide of battle ebbed and flowed at 
the peach orchard and through the wheatfield and broken 
woodland behind it. There was a desperate struggle for 
the possession of Little Round Top, the key of the Federal 
position, but by the foresight of General Warren and by 
the utmost valor on the part of the troops who first reached 
it the hill was held by the Union forces. The troops of 
Sickles were finally driven back from their advanced posi- 
tion, but a strong line was held on Cemetery Ridge and 
Round Top was occupied . Toward night the Confederates 
made a fierce assault up the eastern slope of Cemetery Hill, 
but were hurled back with heavy loss. The Union line 
on Gulp's Hill had been weakened to reinforce the hard 
pressed left wing, and at the end of the day the Confeder- 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR 141 

ates seized a part of the hill. This position they held as 
night fell upon, the second day at Gettysburg. 

On the morning of July 3d after a hard struggle Meade 
drove the Confederates from the ground which they had 
taken on Gulp's Hill. Near midday silence rested on the 
■bloody field for some time. Lee had been hampered in 
his campaign by the absence of his cavalry. Its leader, 
Stuart, rejoined him after a long ride in the course of which 
he had fought a sharp combat with Union cavalry at 
Hanover. He was now ordered to ride around the right of 
the Federal army and strike its rear, but this attack was 
defeated by the horsemen of Gregg and Custer. Lee had 
failed in his attacks on both wings of Meade's army. He 
now determined to break its center. About one o'clock 
more than one hundred Confederate guns opened fire upon 
this point. The Federal guns replied, and for two hours 
the earth shook under the most terrific artillery duel ever 
fought in America. Then the cannon grew silent, and 
fifteen thousand men, led by Pickett with his division of 
Virginians, assaulted the Union center. With matchless 
courage Pickett's men came steadily on under a fearful fire, 
and a handful of them under Armistead surged over the 
stone wall which marked the Union line, only to be beaten 
back with awful loss. The assault had failed. The battle 
of Gettysburg was over. The wave of secession had 
reached high-water mark and began to recede. 

"They fell, who lifted up a hand 
And bade the sun in heaven to stand ! 
They smote and fell, who set the bars 
Against the progress of the stars, 

And stayed the march of Motherland 1 



142 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

" They stood, who saw the future come 
On through the fights' delirium I 
They smote and stood, who held the hope 
Of nations on that slippery slope 
Amid the cheers of Christendom. 

" God lives ! He forged the iron will 
That clutched and held that trembling hill." 

Two days later Lee began his retreat to \'irginia. The 
losses at (jettysburg were enormous. In killed, wounded, 
and j)ris()ners the Union army lost twenty-three thousand 
men, and the Confederate losses were almost as great. 
The wounded were tenderly cared for in the great war 
hospitals of the north. The thousands of dead were buried 
where they fell. Later the bodies of those who "here 
gave the last full measure of devotion" to their country 
were gathered into the national cemetery w^hich Lincoln 
dedicated with his immortal Gettysburg Address. The 
battlefield of Gettysburg is now^ a splendid park belonging 
to the nation. No shrine of patriotism in America can 
compat-e witli it. Every Pennsylvanian owes it a reverent 
visit. 

78. Leaders in the Field and in the Government. — It 
was fitting that the three most conspicuous leaders on 
Pennsylvania's greatest battlefield should all be Pennsyl- 
vanians. George G. Meade, who held the chief command, 
was a Philadelphian. A distinguished engineer before the 
war, Meade had shown himself an officer of courage and 
ability in all the campaigns of the army of the Potomac, 
and he continued to lead that army under Grant until the 
end of the war. At Gettysburg he won imperishable fame. 
John F. Reynolds, who selected the battlefield and opened 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR 143 

the battle, was a native of Lancaster. He was a splendid 
soldier, whose death was regretted by friend and foe. It 
was a southern general who said of him, "No man died on 
that field with more glory than he; yet many died, and 
there was much glory!" Montgomery county was the 
early home of Winfield S. Hancock. Like Meade and 
Reynolds, a graduate of West Point and a soldier in the 
Mexican War, Hancock served the cause of the Union with 
great distinction from 1861 to 1865. Of striking personal 
appearance and dauntless courage, he won the confidence 
and inspired the devotion of his soldiers. He led his men 
through an awful fire at Fredericksburg. The first day 
at Gettysburg he rallied the retreating forces on Cemetery 
Hill. Severely wounded while meeting Pickett's charge, he 
was back on the field in time to take the "bloody angle" at 
Spottsylvania. "He never committed a blunder in bat- 
tle." Hancock held high rank in the army for years after 
the war, and in 1880 he was the Democratic candidate for 
the presidency. 

George B. McClellan, who led the army of the Potomac 
in the Peninsular campaign and at Antietam, was a native 
of Pennsylvania. He was the Democratic candidate for 
president in 1864. George A. McCall and John W. 
Geary were veterans of the Mexican War. McCall was 
the first commander of the Pennsylvania Reserves. Geary 
had been mayor of San Francisco and governor of the 
territory of Kansas. He served with distinction through- 
out the entire war and succeeded Curtin as governor of 
Pennsylvania. David M. Gregg was a gallant horseman 
who rose to the command of the cavalry of the army of 
the Potomac. William W. Averell, John F. Hartranft, 




GKXERAL WIXFIELD S. HANCOCK. 



PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CIVIL WAR 145 

John G. Parke, J. Irvin Gregg, John R. Brooke, Roy 

Stone, and Galusha Penny packer were conspicuous 
among many brave and efficient Pennsylvania generals. 
The state laid a costly sacrifice upon the altar of freedom in 
George D. Bayard, Henry Bohlen, Strong Vincent, and 
Alexander Hays, slain in battle. 

The Keystone state was ably represented in the govern- 
ment of the nation during these trying years of civil strife. 
Simon Cameron, who had been twice elected to the Senate 
of the United States before the war and who served in that 
body for many years after it, was Lincoln's first secretary 
of war. Congress thought that he was not the man for 
the place, and early in 1862 he gave way to Edwin M. Stan- 
ton, a native of Ohio, who had lived in Pittsburgh for years. 
Stanton was our great war secretary. He had faults of 
temper, but his energy, integrity, courage, and iron will, 
his power to command the best service of others, and his 
burning patriotism made him "the stay of the president, 
the hope of the country," and a terror to the dishonest 
and the inefficient. The value of his services cannot be 
overestimated. 

When Congress met in special session on July 4, 186 1, 
Galusha A. Grow, a Pennsylvanian who had been a rep- 
resentative since 1850, was elected speaker of the House. 
He served in that office until 1863. From 1861 until 
his death in 1868 Thaddeus Stevens was the leader of the 
House of Representatives. As chairman of the committee 
on ways and means it was his duty to devise plans for rais- 
ing the revenue to carry on a great war and to take charge 
of the bills directing how the money should be spent. 
These heavy tasks were performed with the utmost 



146 HISTORY OF PENNSVLN ANIA 

fidelity. He was also the .L^aiiding spirit in the reconstruc- 
tion of the southern states. Pennsylvania has never had 
a greater parliamentary leader than Thaddeus Stevens. 
It has been well said of him that "A truer democrat never 
btvalhed. He deemed no man so ]Joor or friendless as to 
be beneath the equal protection of the laws, and none so 
[xjwerful as to rise above their sway. Privilege never 
had a more powerful nor a more consistent foe." 

79. The Fighting Men of Pennsylvania. — Three hun- 
dred and sixty-two thousand, two hundred and eighty- 
four Pennsylvanians fought in the Union army. In 
addition to this number about twenty-five thousand militia 
were called out in emergencies. This host of men came 
from every section of the state and from every class of the 
jK'oj)le. The crowded streets of the cities, the silent places 
of the mountains, the mines beneath the earth were all 
represented. From farm and factory, from railroad and 
lumber camp, there came a quick response to every call 
of "Father Abraham." Organized into regiments and 
drilled in camps of instruction, the soldiers were soon sent 
to tlie front. For three years they knew the life of the 
camp and the march, the picket line and the battlefield, 
and in many cases the hospital and the horrors of the 
southern [)rison. Thousands of them were killed in battle 
and more thousands died of wounds and of disease. When 
their work was done the survivors came home and quietly 
resumed tlu-ir places as peaceful citizens of the state. 

At the beginning of the war the Tegislature authorized 
the governor to procure a flag for each Pennsylvania 
regiment . These flags were presented by Governor Curtin 
in elo(iuent words and received with vows to guard them 




TIIADDEUS STEVENS. 
(From the original negative; photograph by B. Frank Saylor, Lancaster, Penna.). 



148 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

faitlifully. These vows were kept upon well-nigh every 
battlefield of the war. Up and down the Shenandoah 
Valley, at \'icksburg, Chickamauga, Lookout ^Mountain, 
and Missionary Ridge, in Sherman's famous march to 
Atlanta and the sea, u]) the bloody ramparts of Fort 
Wagner and F(;rt Fisher, brave men followed the battle 
Hags of Pennsylvania. The greater number of the soldiers 
of the state were in tlic army of the Potomac, and their flags 
waved in the thickest of the fight in every battle of the 
Prii insular camjjaign, at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chan- 
cellorsville, and Gettysburg, in the Wilderness campaign, 
before Petersburg, and in final triumph at Appomattox. 
When the war was over two hundred and eighteen of these 
torn and tattered battle flags were returned to the state. 
Tliey are now carefully preserved in the capital at Harris- 
burg. \\"\[h the memory of the men who followed them 
they are the most precious possession of the common- 
wealth. 



CHAPTER XIII 
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 

80. After the War. — In 1867 the great war governor 
was succeeded by General John W. Geary. Several years 
of unusual business prosperity followed the return of peace. 
New railroads were built, industry of every kind was active, 
and the vast material resources of the state were rapidly 
developed. During Governor Geary's administration 
the state debt was reduced ten million dollars. At this 
time the scope of the state government began to be enlarged. 
In 1872 a bureau of labor statistics and of agriculture was 
established. The following year commissioners were ap- 
pointed to promote the fishery interests of the state. In 
politics Pennsylvania had become strongly Republican. 
It gave its electoral vote to General Grant in 1868, and 
again in 1872. At the beginning of 1873 another gallant 
general of the Civil War, John F. Hartranft, became 
governor. 

The years following the war were a time of rapid rail- 
road construction in the United States. This led to much 
speculation. Vast sums of money were invested in the new 
roads, many of which could not pay the expenses of opera- 
tion. In 1873 a great financial panic swept over the 
country. It began with the failure of the banking house 
of Jay Cooke and Co. in Philadelphia. Tliis failure was 
wholly unexpected. Jay Cooke had given invaluable 

(149) 



I50 



HISTORY OF PKNNSYLVANIA 



service' to tlic national government during the Civil War in 
heli)ing it to Ijorrovv money. He merits a place beside 
Rolxrt Morris as the financier of a great war. Like 
Morris, lie failed in the effort to promote the too rapid de- 
velo])nient of tlu' country. As the panic grew other banks 
and Inisiness houses failed, factories were closed, men were 
thrown out of work or their wages reduced, and there was 
much distress. For a time business was almost at a stand- 
still in the industrial districts of Pennsylvania. It was 
not until 1870 that ])rosperity was fully restored. 

The close of the first century of American independence 
was fittingly celebrated by a world's fair held in Fair- 
mount Park, Philadelphia, in 1876. Here in many great 
halls were displayed the vast resources of the United States 
and the arts and the manufactures of the whole world. 
The Centennial Fxposition was visited by nearly ten mil- 
lion ])eople. It marks the beginning of the education of 
the mass of our people in art and artistic things. 

81. The Constitution of 1873.— Under the Constitution 
of 1S38 the evil custom had grown up of granting special 
l^rivileges to railroads, and to mining, manufacturing, and 
other com]xmies. This ])ractice of sjX'cial legislation led 
to much ])()litical corrujotion, and, in time, to a popular 
demand for a new state constitution. In 1871 the Legis- 
lature submitted to the people the question of making 
another constitution, and by a vote of almost five to one 
they dec idi'd to call a convention for that purpose. This 
convention met in Ilarrisburg in November, 1872, and 
before the close of that month adjourned to Phikidelphia, 
where most of its work was done. Its members were 
chosen from among the strongest and wisest men in the 



POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT I51 

state. The constitution which they drew up was approved 
by the people in December, 1873, and on the first day of 
January, 1874, it became the supreme law of the common- 
wealth. 

The Constitution of 1873 made a number of important 
changes in the government of the state. All special 
legislation w^as absolutely forbidden. The number of 
members in each house of the state Legislature was in- 
creased. Hereafter the Legislature was to meet once every 
two years instead of holding annual sessions. The par- 
doning power of the governor was limited. Provision was 
made for the election of a lieutenant-governor. All 
judges were to be elected by the people. The fifteenth 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States made 
it necessary to change the words "white freeman" to 
"every male citizen" in describing the qualifications for 
voting. Pennsylvania is still governed under the Constitu- 
tion of 1873. Proposed amendments to this constitution 
must be approved by a majority of each branch of the state 
Legislature at two successive sessions. They are then sub- 
mitted to the people at a state election. If they receive a 
majority of the votes cast they are adopted. 

82. The Present Government of the State. — The laws 
are made in Pennsylvania by a Legislature, called the 
General Assembly, and composed of'two houses, a Senate 
and a House of Representatives. The Senate has fifty 
members elected from single districts for a term of four 
years. One-half of the senators are elected every two years. 
The House of Representatives has about two hundred 
members, apportioned among the counties in proportion 
to their population. Each county must have at least one 



152 HISTORY OF PENNSYL\'ANIA 

representative. Representatives are chosen for a term of 
two years. The Le<^islature meets in regular session on the 
first Tuesday in January of every odd year. To become a 
law a bill must pass each house of the Legislature by a 
majority of the votes of all its members and be signed by 
the governor or not vetoed by him within ten days. A 
bill may be passed over the governor's veto by two-thirds of,, 
all the members of each house. 

The governor is at the head of the executive department 
of the state government. He is chosen by the voters of 
the state for a term of four years and cannot be elected for 
two successive terms. It is his duty to enforce the laws of 
the state. He may grant pardons only upon the recom- 
mendation of the board of pardons, which is made up of 
the lieutenant-governor and three other state officers. 
Some of the other executive officers of the state are 
apfXDinted by the governor, others are elected by the 
people. 

The judicial power of the state is vested in the supreme 
court, in the superior court, and in the various county 
courts. The supreme court of Pennsylvania is composed 
of seven justices, who are elected by the people for a term of 
twenty-one years. The judge whose term of office first 
expires is the chief justice. The superior court is made up 
of seven judges, elected for a term of ten years. The busi- 
ness of these courts consists mainly in hearing appeals 
from the county courts. Murder cases and civil suits in 
which the amount of property in dispute is worth more 
than $1500 may be appealed to the supreme court. 
.'\ppeals in all other cases are made to the superior court 
Thr various criminal and civil cases are tried before juries 



POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 153 

in the county courts. As a rule each county has one or 
more judges of its own, but sometimes two or three of the 
smaller counties are grouped together to form a judicial 
district. 

A voter in Pennsylvania must be a male citizen of the 
state, twenty-one years old. He must reside in the election 
district in which he votes at least tw^o months before the 
election. If twenty-two or more years old, he must have 
paid a state or county tax within two years, and at least 
a month before election. If not a native born citizen of 
the United States, he must have been naturalized at least 
one month before the election. If born in another state, 
he must live in Pennsylvania one year before he votes. 
Natives of Pennsylvania who have established a residence 
elsewhere may vote in six months after their return to this 
state. 

The most important unit of local government in Penn- 
sylvania is the county. There are now sixty-seven counties 
in the state. In each of them there are three commission- 
ers, a sheriff, a prothonotary, a treasurer, and various other 
county officers. The counties are divided into townships, 
in each of which there are supervisors who have charge of 
the roads, justices of the peace who issue warrants for the 
arrest of persons charged with crime and hold courts in 
which petty cases are tried, school directors who provide 
public schools and fix the school tax to help pay for 
them, and some other minor officers. The smaller towns 
may be organized as boroughs with a chief burgess and 
borough council. When a borough has ten thousand 
inhabitants it may become a city and its government 
is then given more power than that of a borough. Pcnn- 



154 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



sylvania cities arc divided into three classes, those having 
1,000,000 or more inhabitants, those whose population is 
between 100,000 and 1,000,000, and those having less 
than 100,000 inhabitants. Philadelphia is the only city 
of the first class in the state. Pittsburgh and Scranton are 
cities of the second class. 

83. Labor Troubles, Strikes, and Riots. — The rapid 
growth of the industries of the state during and after the 
Civil War was attended by the development of two dis- 
tinct classes of people, the men who owned the capital 
invested in mines, factories, and railroads, and the labor- 
ers whom they employed. Soon the feeling began to grow 
among the working men that they were not getting a just 
share of the wealth which their work did so much to pro- 
duce. The result was a long series of disputes between 
capital and labor which have continued to our own time. 
The first serious strike in the coal regions occurred in 1868. 
The miners asked for an eight-hour day. The strike was 
unsuccessful in its immediate purpose, but it led to the 
develo])ment of an organization which strengthened the 
jH)sition of the miners for the future. Three years later a 
strike against a reduction of wages was attended with so 
much violence that it was necessary to send the militia to 
Scranton. 

The hard times, which lasted for several years after the 
panic of 1873 were marked by a long series of labor 
troubles. In 1874 the militia had to be sent to Susquehanna 
to |)Ut down the disorder incident to a railroad strike on 
the Erie road. From January to July, 1875, occurred the 
"long strike" in the Schuylkill and Lehigh coal regions. 
It ended in the surrender of the strikers. For vears the 



POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 155 

anthracite coal regions were terrorized by an Irish secret 
society called the Molly Maguires. Murders of mining 
bosses who were hated by the members of this order were 
frequent. Yet there were few arrests and for a long time 
not a conviction for murder in the first degree. At last 
in 1876, largely through the efforts of President Gowen of 
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and of James 
McParlan, a young Irish detective, nineteen of the 
Mollies were convicted and hanged, and the order stamped 
out. In 1877 there was a great railroad strike throughout 
the United States. This strike brought on the most serious 
and destructive riots that ever broke out in Pennsylvania. 
At Pittsburgh a vast amount of railroad property was de- 
stroyed and there was serious fighting between the militia 
and the strikers. The railroad bridge at Reading was 
burned, and there was much disorder at Scranton, Wilkes 
Barre, and other places. 

In 1892 an attempt of the Carnegie Steel Company to 
reduce the wages of its employees led to a very serious riot 
at Homestead in Allegheny county. In 1897 there was a 
strike for higher wages in the coal regions. This strike 
was marked by a serious collision between the sheriff and 
his deputies and a body of strikers at Lattimer in Luzerne 
county, in wliich twenty of the strikers were killed and many 
others wounded. The last great anthracite coal strike 
occurred in 1902. It brought on a coal famine and threat- 
ened still more serious trouble, which, fortunately, was 
averted by President Roosevelt, who prevailed upon the 
miners and the owners of the coal fields to submit their 
dispute to the arbitration of a commission which he ap- 
pointed. 



156 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

84. Politics, State and National. — In 1879 Henry M. 
Hoyt, oi Wilkes Burrc, who had served as colonel of the 
52(1 re«,Mment in the Civil War, became governor. During 
his term the National Guard was thoroughly reorganized. 
Ill i<S,S2 the bi-ccntennial of the arrival of William Penn 
in his i)rovince was appropriately celebrated in Phila- 
(leli)hia. The same year the Democrats elected Robert E. 
Pattison,a young and popular Philadelphian, to the gover- 
norshij) He gave the state a good administration and was 
again chosen governor in 1890. He was a candidate for 
a third term in 1902, but was defeated. With the exception 
of (Governor Pattison, every governor of Pennsylvania from 
1 86 1 to 191 2 has been a Republican. 

General James A. Beaver, of Bellefonte, a soldier with 
a brilliant Civil War record, became governor in 1887. 
About this time there was a strong demand for legislation 
to restrict the liquor traffic, and a high license bill was 
passed requiring large fees for the right to sell liquor at 
retail. Tn 1889 a constitutional amendment, prohibiting 
the hianufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor as a bever- 
age, was submitted to the voters of the state, but w^as de- 
feated. The same year the state was visited by the most 
awful catastrophe in its history. A great dam on a branch 
of the Conemaugh river gave way and a raging torrent 
swept down the Conemaugh valley destroying everything 
before it. Tliree thousand lives were lost in Johnstown 
and neighboring places. 

Daniel H. Hastings, another citizen of Bellefonte, was 
governor from 1895 to 1899. Early in his term the Legis- 
lature created a number of new departments in the govern- 
ment, among them those of agriculture and of banking. 



POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 157 

In order to lighten the work of the supreme court the supe- 
rior court was established at this time. Since 1899 William 
A. Stone, a lawyer in Pittsburgh, Samuel W. Pennypacker, 
at the time of his election a judge in Philadelphia, Edwin S. 
Stuart, a Philadelphia business man who has been mayor 
of that city, and John K. Tener, a banker of Washington 
county, have been governors of the state. 

The Republican party carried Pennsylvania in every 
presidential election from 1 860 to 1 9 1 2 . In every one of these 
elections since 1884 its majority was very large. This 
fact is explained by the belief of the people of Pennsyl- 
vania that the industrial prosperity of their state is depend- 
ent upon the maintenance of a high protective tariff. 
WTiether true or false, this belief has led them to support 
steadfastly the party which has ever championed the cause 
of high protection. Many Pennsylvania Democrats, like 
Samuel J. Randall of Philadelphia, who was speaker of the 
national House of Representatives from 1876 to 1881, have 
been strong supporters of protection. It is a good thing 
for a state when its political parties are nearly equal in 
strength, as this puts both of them on their good behavior. 
When any party has an overwhelming majority it no longer 
has this incentive to good conduct and can elect its candi- 
dates, good and bad alike, as it chooses. The Republican 
party has thus suffered from the lack of a vigorous oppo- 
sition in its later history in Pennsylvania. 

The most conspicuous leaders of the dominant party in 
Pennsylvania since the Civil War have been Simon Cam- 
eron, who was United States senator from 1867 to 1877, his 
son, J. Donald Cameron, a senator for twenty years, and 
Matthew Stanley Quay, who served in the same body most 



158 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

of tlic tinu- from 1877 until his death in 1904. Pcnn- 
sylvanians have not been so prominent in the cabinet 
(iurinf^f the last forty years as they were in the earlier days 
of the nation's history. Still, Wayne MacVeagh and Ben- 
jamin H. l^rewster were exceptionally able attorneys- 
general in the cabinets of Presidents Garfield and Arthur, 
and John Wanamaker and Charles Emory Smith have ad- - 
ministered the post-office department with marked ability. 

When the Spanish War broke out in 1898 Pennsylvania 
promptly furnished her full quota of troops. The tenth 
regiment was sent to ^Manila and saw much active survice 
in the Philippines. Two regiments of infantry and some 
cavalry and artillery went to Porto Rico. The other 
troops did not leave the United States. 

85. Some Important Laws. — In recent years a number of 
imi)ortant laws have been passed to correct evils that have 
grown up in the state and to give a better government in 
the future. A law regulating primary elections at which 
nominations for office are made, another providing for a 
secret ballot so that no man can see how another is voting, 
and a third, requiring candidates for office to make public 
their campaign expenses, all aim to secure fair and honest 
elections. .Another recent act of the Legislature established 
a better form of government in cities of the second class. 
For years it has been the policy of the state to give gener- 
ous aid to hospitals and other public charities which are 
partly supported by private contributions. Another law 
provides for the preservation and protection of forests. 
Of late years the state of Pennsylvania has been buying 
forest lands in the mountains, until now it owns over one 
million acres. 



POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 1 59 

Another matter of great interest to the people of Penn- 
sylvania at present is the making of good roads. The state 
now assists townships in making and repairing macadam- 
ized roads. It also builds roads of its own and is sure to 
do more of such work in the future. The most important 
act passed in Pennsylvania in many years, however, is 
the school code of 19 1 1 . This great law, which reorganized . 
the entire school system of the state, was drawn up by a 
body of prominent citizens and educators. It makes the 
school boards smaller and gives them great power. It 
makes possible a closer supervision of schools, especially 
in the country districts. It requires higher qualifications 
of teachers and introduces the medical inspection of pupils. 
It creates a permanent school fund and establishes a state 
board of education. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THL GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA 

86. The Era of Combinations and Trusts. — The history 
of Punnsylvunia during the last forty years has been mainly 
the history of its industries and its commerce. Manu- 
factures of every kind have grown with unparalleled rapid- 
ity. ^hlnv nev\' industries have arisen, while numerous 
articles once made in the homes of the people are now the 
])roduct of factories. The application of science and in- 
vention in all lines of manufacturing has greatly increased 
the output of the factories, and at the same time resulted 
in more highly finished and cheaper goods. 

This ra])id development of industry has been attended 
by several important results. A large number of people 
have left the country districts and have gone to live in the 
cities and towns in order to work in the factories. Conse- 
(juently, there has been a remarkable growth of cities, while 
in the farming section of the state the population has been 
almost at a standstill. Many women and children have 
secured employment in the factories. But the niost sig- 
nificant change that has been going on during this time 
has been the joining of a number of independent concerns 
doing the same kind of work into one great business com- 
bination. This has led to the concentration of vast capital 
in the hands of a small number of successful manufacturers. 
When such a combination seeks to secure an exclusive 
market for its own goods it is called a trust. 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA i6l 

In some ways the formation of great corporations and 
trusts has been a good thing. Many kinds of manufactur- 
ing can be carried on more economically on a large scale 
than in a small way. Great concerns can buy raw mate- 
rials more cheaply, sell their goods with less expense, and in 
making by-products use waste to a better advantage. Some- 
times they can do work which no one man would have suf- 
ficient capital to undertake. On the other hand, the growth 
of the trusts has been attended by great evils. Sometimes 
prices have been kept too high, and often labor has been 
underpaid and forced to toil long hours under wretched 
w^orking conditions. In order to protect their rights 
working men have combined to form labor unions. Some 
of these unions have come to have vast power. The 
regulation and control of these great combinations of both 
capital and labor is one of the most important and serious 
questions now" before the people of the state. 

87. Iron and Steel. — In the production of iron and 
steel Pennsylvania leads not only the United States but the 
world. At one time it was first among the states in the 
amount of iron ore mined within its borders, but now it is 
surpassed in that respect by Minnesota, Michigan, and 
Wisconsin in the north, and by Alabama in the south. 
The greater part of the ore now smelted in Pennsylvania 
comes by water from the Lake Superior iron region to 
Cleveland, Erie, and other lake ports, and thence by rail 
to the Pittsburgh district. This district, which includes 
besides Pittsburgh, McKeesport, Homestead, Johnstown, 
New Castle, and other places, produces over one-half of 
the pig-iron of the United States. 

In the Pittsburgh district are several enormous plants for 



1 62 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

the manufacture of steel. There are also important iron 
and steel works in South Bethlehem, Steelton, Rcadinf:^, 
Scranton, Allentown, Easton, Coatesville, Phoenixvillc, 
and other places. Nearly all the structural steel used in 
buildings and bridges comes from Pennsylvania. The 
state also produces more than one-half of the rolled iron 
and steel used in this country in making rails, plates, cut 
nails, spikes, wire rods, and similar articles. 

The iron and steel industry has attracted many of the 
ablest men of the state. John Fritz was one of the earliest 
and most famous iron and steel experts of Pennsylvania. 
He equipped the Bethlehem works and was for many 
years its manager. He was one of the first men in the 
country to employ many of the improved methods in 
making steel which have now come into common use. 
•Andrew Carnegie is the greatest iron master that Pennsyl- 
x^^wla has ever known. A native of Scotland, he was 
brought to this country in childhood, and in early life was 
employed in the telegraph and railroad business. En- 
gaging in the manufacture of iron, he built up the most 
complete system of iron and steel industries ever controlled 
by one man, and became the largest manufacturer of pig- 
iron, steel rails, and coke in the world. With others he 
organized the United States Steel Corporation, commonly 
known as the ''Steel Trust," which monopolizes the steel 
business of the country. Carnegie made an enormous- 
fortune which he is spending freely for benevolent an^ 
v( I ucational j )U r| x )sc'S. 

88. Coal, Petroleum, and Natural Gas. — The high rank 
which Pennsylvania holds in industry is due in large part 
to its abundant supply of fuel. It is first among the states 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA 163 

in the production of coal, coke, and gas. In 19 10 there 
were mined in the state 74,000,000 tons of anthracite 
and 148,000,000 tons of bituminous coal. This was 
almost 46 per cent of the total output of coal in the United 
States. To mine this enormous quantity of coal required 
the labor of 361,000 men. Their work is one of the most 
dangerous in which men engage. It has been estimated 
that one life is lost for each 100,000 tons of coal mined. 
Coke is the chief fuel used in the production of pig-iron. 
The Connellsville region, forty miles southeast of Pitts- 
burgh, produces more coke than any other district in the 
world. Natural gas is a well-nigh perfect fuel for the man- 
ufacture of steel and of glass, and great quantities of it are 
used for these purposes in western Pennsylvania. 

We have traced^ the early history of petroleum in 
this state. For many years Pennsylvania led in the 
production of this commodity. While it is now surpassed 
in that respect by several states, notably by California and 
Texas, it still produces more than 10,000,000 barrels of 
oil every year. The problem of getting the petroleum of 
western Pennsylvania to market has always been a difficult 
one. At first it was shipped in barrels, and later in tank 
cars. Now much of the crude oil is pumped across the 
state in pipe lines to great refineries near Philadelphia and 
other places near tide-water. Enormous quantities of 
both crude and refined oil are exported from Philadelphia 
to all parts of the world. There are nearly two hundred 
by-products of petroleum. The most important of these 
are lubricating oils, gasoline, and vaseline. For years the 
petroleum industry of the entire country has been in the 

' Section 60. 



1 64 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

hands of the Standard Oil Company, one of the greatest 
of the American trusts. This trust was dissolved by the 
Su|)remc Court of the United States in 191 1. 

89. Textiles. — Textiles are fabrics made by weaving 
threads spun from cotton, wool, silk, and flax. Next to 
the production of iron and steel the making of textiles is 
the leading manufacture in Pennsylvania. While the 
state cannot compare with New England in the making of 
cotton goods, ihcy are extensively manufactured in Phila- 
delphia, Chester, and other places. Pennsylvania has 
more plants for making cotton lace than any other state. 
Wilkes Barre was a pioneer in this industry. 

Very little linen is made, Ixil in the manufacture of silk 
Pennsylvania is one of the foremost states in the Union. 
The silk industry has grown with great rapidity in the 
state during the last thirty years. Silk mills are now found 
in nearly a hundred Pennsylvania towns. Philadelphia, 
Scranton, Allentown, and Easton are the leading cities 
in the production of this fabric. 

It is in the making of woolen goods that the state is pre- 
eminent. Philadeli)hia is the largest center of wool manu- 
facture in America. Pennsylvania ranks second in wool- 
ens, worsteds, and knit goods, while in the weaving of 
carpets it far outstrips every other state. Philadelphia 
alone produces almost one-half of the entire American 
carpet output. A very large number of Pennsylvanians 
find employment in these various textile industries. 

90. BuildinK Materials.— The Keystone State is richly 
provided with almost everything required in the construc- 
tion of buildings. As we have seen, it is foremost in the 
making of structural iron and steel. While its lumber inter- 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA 165 

ests are no longer as extensive as they once were, the state 
still has great forests and many saw-mills, and produces 
much of the hemlock lumber used within its borders. 
Many million feet of oak, white pine, maple, and chest- 
nut are cut every year. Pennsylvania is a leader in the 
making of brick and tiles, and first of all the states in 
the value of the building stone which comes from its 
quarries. Sandstone and limestone are widely distribu- 
ted, and some soapstone, blue stone, and serpentine 
are found. Portland cement is manufactured in large 
quantities in the valley of the Lehigh. Fully one-half 
of all the cement made in the United States is produced 
in this state. 

The house builder need not go outside the state for 
the materials for the roof or the windows. Some of 
the most extensive slate quarries in America are found 
in York and Northampton counties. Pittsburgh is the 
center of glass manufacture for the whole country. 
Although glass making is carried on in twenty-five 
states, Pennsylvania produces two-fifths of the entire 
output. 

91. Ship Building. — The building of shii)S was carried 
on in Philadelphia at a very early period. At the time of 
the Revolution several vessels were built in that city for 
the young American navy. This industry has grown and 
flourished upon the Delaware until that river well merits 
the name of the American Clyde. 

The immense shipyards of Philadelphia and at Chester 
are associated with the names of Cramp and of Roach. 
William Cramp was for many years a famous ship builder 
in the forrner city. His son, Charles H. Cramp, established 




WILLIAM CRAMP. 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA I67 

the prestige of the firm of William Cramp and Sons. 
Their shipyards in Philadelphia are the most extensive in 
the United States. Here have been built many vessels for 
the American navy and several for the navies of foreign 
nations. This firm has exerted a great influence upon 
modern naval development. Some forty years ago John 
Roach established a great ship building plant in Chester 
which was second only to that of the Cramps in the build- 
ing of iron ships. 

92. Miscellaneous Industries. — Pennsylvania ranks high 
in the making of scores of products, only a few of which can 
be mentioned here. INIuch pottery is made and some 
kaolin is found in the state. There are small mines of 
zinc, nickel, and graphite. Tin plate, used for roofing, for 
kitchen utensils, and in vast quantities for canning pur- 
poses, is manufactured extensively in the western part of 
the state. The tanning of leather was early established and 
it is now one of the great industries. There are many 
large tanneries in Tioga, Elk, Potter, and Clearfield coun- 
ties, where supplies of hemlock bark are easily obtainable. 
Philadelphia is also a great center for the tanning and 
finishing of leather. 

The state makes much butter, cheese, and condensed 
milk. The products of its slaughter-houses are of great 
value. Many shad are caught in the Delaware. Flour- 
mills, breweries, and cigar factories are numerous. Phila- 
delphia is largely engaged in the manufacture of ready 
made clothing, boots, and shoes. Much furniture and 
many pianos are made in the state. 

The products of the foundries and machine shops of 
Pennsylvania are known all over the world. The state 



i68 lllSTUKV UV rEXNSVLVANIA 

was a i)ionccr in the makin,^ of paper and now ranks fourth 
in this industry. Paints and chemicals are extensively 
made. In the value of chemicals manufactured Pennsyl- 
vania is exceeded only by New York. Electrical apparatus 
and suj)j)lies are ])r()duce(l in large quantities. 

93. The Farms of the State. — The most important of 
all the industries of Pennsylvania is carried on upon its 
farms. The soil and climate of the state give it a great 
variety of agricultural products. Hay is our most valuable 
farm crop, and it is followed in order by corn, wheat, oats, 
potatoes, and fruits. ]Much rye is grown and more buck- 
wheat than in any other state. Vegetables of all kinds are 
plentiful. Lancaster county is the leading tobacco 
growing county in the United States. 

Pennsylvania is well adapted to the production of fruit. 
In the value of its apple crop it is exceeded only by New 
York, and in quality its apples arc unsurpassed by those 
of any other state. Grapes and other small fruits grow in 
great abundance upon the lowlands bordering Lake Erie. 
Pennsylvania leads all the states in the production of 
cherries. 

In the value of its dairy products Pennsylvania is the 
second state in the Union. Its farms arc well stocked with 
all kinds of domestic animals. Southwestern Pennsyl- 
vania produces more wool than any other district east of 
the Rocky Mountains. The value of the state's poultry 
and eggs is almost as great as that of its petroleum. In 
the total value of its crops Lancaster county stands first 
in the United States, and the counties of Chester and Bucks 
are very near the top of the list. Farming in the state is 
steadily becoming more scientific. Insect pests and plant 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA 169 

and animal diseases are being combated with greater suc- 
cess. Experiment stations and progressive farmers are 
constantly seeking out and testing new crops. 

94. The Railroads. — The vast industrial growth of 
Pennsylvania could not have taken place without a corre- 
sponding development of its means of transportation. 
The railroads, which have almost wholly taken the place 
of the turnpikes and canals, carry enormous amounts of 
freight every year. These roads of steel follow the rivers 
and thread their way through the gaps in the mountains 
along the early trails. There are over ten thousand miles 
of railways in the state and in recent years nearly three 
thousand miles of electric roads have been built. With 
their numerous branches these highways of commerce 
make the markets of the world accessible to the people 
of every section of the state. 

The early railroads have been consolidated into great 
railway systems, some of which reach far out into the 
Mississippi Valley. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the 
first of these and one of the finest railroads in the world. 
It owns nearly one-third of the railway mileage of the state. 
This great railroad owes much of its prosperity to the 
energy, alertness, and sound business principles of Thomas 
A. Scott, one of its presidents, under whom it was most 
rapidly developed. The Philadelphia and Reading is 
the second railroad in mileage within the state. This 
road and the Lehigh Valley, the Erie, the Central Railroad 
of New Jersey, and the Delaware, Lackawanna and West- 
ern are the chief anthracite coal carriers. The Baltimore 
and Ohio, another great railroad, has over six hundred 
miles of track in Pennsylvania. 




GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE. 



THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA 171 

Some of the great industries of the state are a direct 
outgrowth of the railroad business. Pennsylvania builds 
one-half the locomotives in the United States. The Bald- 
win Locomotive Works in Philadelphia are the largest in 
the world. The Pennsylvania Railroad maintains great 
manufacturing and repair shops at Altoona. The in- 
ventions of George Westinghouse have greatly increased 
the safety of high-speed railroad traveling. The famous 
Westinghouse air-brake is used all over the world. It is 
manufactured in the extensive works of the Westinghouse 
Air-brake Company at Wilmerding, near Pittsburgh. 

95. Foreign Commerce. — Philadelphia is the third city 
in size in the United States. While its largest interests 
are manufacturing rather than commercial, it is one of our 
greatest seaports, ranking fourth in the percentage of 
foreign commerce which it handles. It has regular steam- 
ship lines to Liverpool, Antwerp, the West Indies, and in 
the coasting trade. Philadelphia exports grain, coal, oil, 
and many other commodities. Its most notable imports 
are wool for its carpet factories, hides and skins from all 
parts of the world for the tanneries of the state, and large 
quantities of raw sugar from the West Indies. Much of 
the imported sugar is refmed in the great refineries along 
the Delaware. 



CHAPTER XV 
PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE 

96. The True Greatness of the State. — The greatness of 
Pennsylvania is not confined to its wealth of material 
resources or to the vastness of its industrial development. 
While the state has led the country in the production of 
coal, steel, and oil, in the making of locomotives and 
battleships, and in a long list of other manufactures, its 
sons have not neglected the higher and more important 
things of life. They have served their country with ability 
and fidelity in peace and war. Thousands of them have 
laid down their lives upon the battlefields of the nation. 
OtlKT thousands have given themselves to the public 
service in education and in the professions which enlighten, 
uplift, and help humanity. By exploration, experiment, 
and invention men of science have enlarged the field of 
human knowledge. Artists have painted pictures and men 
of letters have written books. It is in these things which 
grow out of an intellectual life, and in the industry, intelli- 
gence, and virtue of all its citizens that the true greatness of 
a state consists. Judged by this test Pennsylvania holds 
a proud i)lace among the states. 

97. Men of Science. — Science has been a favorite study 
of Pennsylvanians since the days of Benjamin Franklin, of 
David Rittenhouse, the mathematician and astronomer, 
and of John liartram, the father of American botany. ^ 

'Sections 24 and 25. 
(172) 



PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE 173 

At his home, near Philadelphia, John Bartram established 
the first botanical garden in America. His son, William 
Bartram, was a famous naturalist. Gotthilf Heinrich 
Muhlenberg, a son of the great Lutheran leader and a 
brother of John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, the Revolu- 
.tionary general, and of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, 
the first speaker of the national House of Representatives, 
was a botanist of worldwide reputation. 

Near the close of the eighteenth century a Scotchman 
named Alexander Wilson came to America. While he 
was teaching school near the home of William Bartram he 
became acquainted with the naturalist. Bartram taught 
him to love birds and interested him in their study. Wilson 
started out to make a collection of all the birds of America 
and worked at this task for years. The result was the 
publication in Philadelphia of his American Ornithology 
in nine volumes. This great work laid the foundation for 
the study of birds in this country. Another great bird 
lover, John James Audubon, lived for some years in 
Montgomery county and there began the work which 
later made him famous. Audubon was really an artist 
with a strong love of nature. His pictures of birds have 
been called the greatest tribute ever paid by art to science. 

Pennsylvanians have won great distinction in every line 
of scientific study. Afore than one hundred years ago 
Joseph Priestley, an Englishman famous for his discover- 
ies in chemistry, spent the last years of his life in this state. 
We call the science which treats of living things, of animals 
and plants, biology. Joseph Leidy, of Philadelphia, was 
one of our greatest biologists. That branch of biology 
which tells of animals we call zoology. No other American 



174 HISTORY OF PKNNSVLN ANIA 

2»ologist has ever done work of so great practical value as 
that of S])cnccr F. Baird, a native of Reading. He was 
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. 
The purpose of this institution is "the increase and diffu- 
sion of useful knowledge among men." Its great success 
in accomphshing this purpose is due in large part to the 
untiring efforts of Secretary Baird. The science which 
treats of the fossils which are the remains of the ancient 
Hfe of tlie earth we call palaeontology. No name stands 
higher in this science than that of Edward D. Cope 
of Phihidclphia. When science treats of the division of 
mankind into races we call it ethnology; when it studies 
tlie remains and relics of the early history of man it is 
archaeology. Pennsylvania had an eminent ethnologist 
and archaeologist in Daniel G. Brinton. 

Forestry is the })1anting, care, and protection of forests. 
Our ])eople are just beginning to realize its great import- 
ance. (}iff(jr(l Pinchot, now a resident of Pennsylvania, 
did the first systematic forest work in America, and later 
as chief of the Forest Service of the United States made 
that service a great and growing department of government 
work and taught the i)eople its necessity and value. Al- 
th(iugh much yet remains to be done, Pennsylvania has 
done more than any other state to care for and protect its 
forests. Tlie wise forest })olicy upon which the state has 
entered is due in large measure to the untiring efforts and 
high public spirit of Joseph T. Rothrock, who was its 
commissioner of forestry for twelve years. Pennsylvania 
has no more useful citizen. 

The sons of Pennsylvania have been foremost in the 
exploration of the Arctic regions. Elisha K. Kane, of 



PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE 175 

Philadelphia, led an important expedition to the far north 
in 1853 and found an open polar sea. Isaac I. Hayes, a 
native of Chester county, accompanied Kane as surgeon 
on this trip, and commanded another expedition in i860. 
With a small party in a boat and by using dog sledges 
Hayes reached a very high northern latitude. Both Kane 
and Hayes wrote interesting accounts of their discoveries. 
The long polar search was ended in 1909 when another 
Pennsylvanian, Robert E. Peary, after many years of effort 
planted the stars and stripes at the north pole. 

98. Art and Artists. — Pennsylvania was the birthplace 
of the fine arts in America. Benjamin West, the first great 
American painter, was born in 1738, in a house which is 
still standing on the college campus at Swarthmore. From 
early childhood he showed a fondness and aptitude for 
painting. He was a Friend and the Friends denied the 
usefulness of the painter's art. But the meeting to which 
his parents belonged decided that God had given Benjamin 
a gift that ought to be cultivated. He studied art in Phila- 
delphia and afterward in Italy, and finally settled in 
London, where he rose to be president of the Royal Acad- 
emy. West painted about four hundred pictures. His 
"Death of Wolfe" and his "Pcnn's Treaty with the In- 
dians" are among his most famous works. The latter 
picture hangs in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. 

The most famous painter living in America during and 
after the Revolution was Charles Wilson Peale. After 
studying with Benjamin West in London, he opened a 
studio in Philadelphia in 1776. He is especially noted for 
his portraits of Washington and of other Revolutionary 
leaders. In 1805 he helped found the Pennsylvania 



lyb HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the oldest existing 
art institution in America. It was established "to promote 
the cultivation of the fine arts in the United States." 
Peale's son, Rembrandt Peale, like his father was a pupil 
of Benjamin West, and became a noted portrait painter. 

John Sartain was a native of London, who settled in 
Philadelj^hia in 1830. As an engraver, portrait painter, 
and as the administrator of fine arts at the Centennial 
Exposition he did much for the development of art in his 
adopted country. His son, William, is a landscape painter, 
and his daughter, Emily, is widely know^n as an engraver, 
etcher, illustrator, and portrait painter. As principal of 
the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, Emily 
Sartain has done much to promote art education in her 
native city. 

Two popular Pennsylvania painters of the last genera- 
tion were Peter Frederick Rothermel and Thomas Ho- 
venden. After the Civil War Rothermel was appointed 
by the state to paint the "Battle of Gettysburg." This 
large picture now hangs in the I^ibrary Building at Harris- 
burg. Hovenden is widely known by his "Breaking Home 
Ties," a picture which touched many hearts at the World's 
Fair in Chicago in 1893. Both these artists died in 1895. 
Hovenden lost his life in the efTort to rescue a child from 
death in front of a locomotive. 

Mural painting is painting upon the walls and ceilings 
of rooms. Some of the greatest mural painters of the 
world are closely associated with Pennsylvania. John 
S. Sargent was born in Italy, but his father had been a 
physician in Philadelphia. Sargent's mural decoration, 
"The U'riumi)h of Religion," in the corridor of the Boston 



PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE 177 

Public Library, is beautiful in color and splendid in its 
power. A detail of it, the "Frieze of the Prophets," is 
often seen in our homes and schools. This artist is also 
one of the world's great portrait painters. There is not 
a period in the history of art in which his work would not 
rank among the best. John W. Alexander, who has told 
the story of "The Evolution of the Book" in a series of 
beautiful pictures upon the walls of the Library of Congress 
in Washington, is a native of Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 
He has honored the locality of his birth by portraying "The 
Crowning of Labor" upon the walls of the Carnegie In- 
stitute in Pittsburgh. The greatest of our mural painters, 
Edwin A. Abbey, was born in Philadelphia, and received 
his first instruction at the Academy of Fine Arts in that 
city. Nothing in mural decorations exceeds in charm and 
grace his noble frieze, "The Quest of the Holy Grail," 
in the Boston Public Library. Abbey painted the scene 
of the coronation of King Edward VH., of England, and at 
the time of his death, in 191 1, was engaged upon a series 
of splendid pictures for the walls of the capitol of his 
native state. Those in the dome were completed, but 
others were left unfinished. 

The Keystone state has never been more ably repre- 
sented in art than it is at present. Joseph Pennell, the 
greatest living American etcher; Cecelia Beaux, one of our 
finest portrait painters; Edward W. Redfield, unsurpassed 
in this country as a painter of landscapes; Violet Oakley, 
who has been found worthy to complete the mural decora- 
tions in the capitol at Harrisburg, left unfinished by the 
untimely death of Edwin A. Abbey; and George Grey 
Barnard, the eminent sculptor, whose work adorns the 



i-jS HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA • 

entrance to the same buildin.^, are all of them residents 
or natives of Pennsylvania. 

99. Literature. — The tolerance of the Quaker govern- 
ment of early Pennsylvania not only attracted the perse- 
cuted of other lands; it tended, likewise, to promote the 
growth of the arts of peace. The colony was a pioneer in 
the making of books as well as in science and art. In it 
were printed the first books ever published in America, and 
previous to the Revolution more books were published in 
Pennsylvania than in all the other colonics combined. 

We have seen^ that newspapers were established early 
in the history of the colony. From those days to the 
present Pennsylvania has had a vigorous and influential 
press. Among the many editors who have exerted a 
marked influence upon the political life of the state special 
mention may be made of Benjamin Franklin Bache and 
of William l)uane,who were prominent in the early days of 
the nation, and of John W. Forney and Alexander K. 
McClure, men of ])ower in the time of the Civil War. 
Several monthly magazines were started in Philadelphia in 
the eighteenth century. The Port Folio, established in 
1 80 1 by Joseph Dennie, did much to develop the literary 
talent of the country. Graham^s Magazine, started in 
1S41 with Edgar Allan Poe as editor, counted Longfellow, 
Hawthorne, and the other important literary men of the 
time among its contributors. 

Pennsylvania has not been without great literary schol- 
ars. Professor I'^i-ancis A. March, of Lafayette College, 
was a pioneer in the historical study of the English lan- 
guage. Horace Howard Furness, the editor of a great 

' Section 24. 



PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE 179 

edition of Shakespeare's plays, is the most eminent living 
Shakespearean scholar. About the time of the Revolution- 
ary War, Robert Proud, a Philadelphia schoolmaster, 
wrote a reliable history of the colony of Pennsylvania. 
David Ramsay, a native of Lancaster county, wrote a good 
contemporary "History of the American Revolution." 
Among the many Pennsylvanians who have written history 
since the days of Proud and Ramsay the places of honor 
must be given to John B. IMcINIaster, who is writing a great 
"History of the People of the United States," and to 
Henry C. Lea, famous among scholars all over the world 
for his works upon certain features of the religious life of 
the Middle Ages. 

Charles Brockden Brown was the first Pennsylvania 
novelist of any note. His books are little read now. 
Among the many writers of fiction in the state none have 
been more widely read than S. Weir Mitchell, whose 
"Hugh Wynne" and "The Red City" take us back to 
the days when Philadelphia was the capital of the nation ; 
Owen Wister, whose great novel, "The Virginian," pic- 
tures the life of a generation ago on the cattle ranches of the 
far West; and Captain Mayne Reid, whose stories for boys 
put a premium upon manliness and courage. 

Joseph Hopkinson, whose fame rests on his national 
song, "Hail Columbia"; George P. Morris, who wrote the 
well-known j)oem, "Woodman, Spare that Tree"; George 
H. Boker, author of the strong drama, "Francesca da 
Rimini," and of numerous stirring poems of the Civil War; 
Thomas Dunn English, best known for his popular ballad, 
"Ben Bolt" ; Maurice Francis Egan, who has given us many 
sweet and true verses; Henry Van Dyke, author of "God 




BAYARD TAYLOR. 



PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE i8l 

of the Open Air" and other nature poems; and John Rus- 
sell Hayes, who sings of "The Brand}'Avine" and of "The 
Old-fashioned Garden," are all natives of Philadelphia or 
its vicinity. 

A greater poet than any of the writers just named was 
Thomas Buchanan Read. Born in Chester county, 
"within the shadow of the blue hills of Uwchlan," his 
verse portrays the rural life of his own state. Though a 
wanderer in many lands, he declared that "no lovelier 
landscape meets the traveler's eye than the midland vales 
of Pennsylvania," and that neither the Rhine, the Danube, 
nor the Po 

"Is half so fair as thy broad stream, whose breast 
Is gemmed with many isles, and whose proud name 
Shall yet become among the names of rivers 
A synonym of beauty — Susquehanna!'' 

Read is best known for his fine short poems, "Drifting," 
"Passing the Icebergs," and "Midnight"; for his long 
poem, "The Wagoner of the Alleghenies," and for his 
patriotic poems of the Civil War, "The Oath" and 
"Sheridan's Ride." 

100. Our Foremost Man of Letters. — Bayard Taylor, 
the greatest man in the literary history of Pennsylvania, 
was born in Kennett Square, Chester county, in 1825. 
A longing for new and larger fields early led him from home. 
Few American writers have had a wider knowledge of life. 
He was country boy, printer, journalist, traveler in many 
lands, lecturer, novelist, and, above all things, a true poet. 
After years of wandering he settled at Cedarcroft, a fine 
home which he built near his native place. At the time 




THOMAS BUCHANAN READ. 



PENNSYLVANIA IN SCIENCE, ART, AND LITERATURE 183 

of his early death, in 1878, he was the American minister 
to the German Empire. 

Bayard Taylor was a versatile writer. In his early 
manhood he went abroad "to see and learn and grow." 
He saw much and reported what he saw in "Views Afoot, 
or Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff." Later jour- 
neys led him to write many other books of travel. For 
clear and interesting descriptions of the countries he visited 
Taylor's accounts of his travels are unsurpassed. Of the 
four novels which he wrote the best is "The Story of 
Kennett," a fine romance of the old-time Pennsylvanian 
country life in a Quaker neighborhood. 

But Bayard Taylor's highest ambition was to be a great 
poet. He had true poetic genius, and, though a busy life 
kept him from realizing fully his highest aims, some of his 
poems will live as long as there is an American literature. 
He is at his best in the splendid "Bedouin Song," and in 
"The Old Pennsylvania Farmer" and "The Quaker 
Widow," which picture the rural scenes and characters he 
knew best. His "Lars; a Pastoral of Norway," is one of 
the finest narrative poems in our literature. The "Masque 
of the Gods" is the best of his dramas. He wrote the 
"National Ode" for the celebration of the centennial of 
the Declaration of Independence. His crowning literary 
work is an unequaled translation of "Faust," the master- 
piece of Goethe, the greatest of German poets. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE PROBLEMS OF TO=DAY AND TO=MORROVV 

101. The Making of a People. — The people of Pennsyl- 
vania have come from many lands, and represent many 
dilTerent races, languages, and customs. In the eighteenth 
centui ythe peace-loving English Quakers, the sturdy, hard- 
working Germans, and the vigorous, aggressive Scotch- 
Irishmen laid the foundations of the commonwealth. 
Though the descendants of these pioneers are all thoroughly 
Anu-rican now, each racial group has retained many of 
its traits and customs to the present time, while other races 
have been added to the population of the state. 

For more than a hundred years great numbers of 
Pennsylvanians have moved westward. These men have 
played a large part in the making of every state from Ohio 
to California. Their loss has been made up by foreign 
immigration. Large numbers of Irishmen fled to this 
country after the unsuccessful Irish rebellion of 1798. 
Many of them settled in Pennsylvania. After the war of 
181 2 a small but steady stream of English and Irish immi- 
grants began to flow into the state. The Irish famine of- 
1846 and the German revolution of 1848 sent great numbers 
of these peoples across the Atlantic. The opportunities 
for employment and advancement which it offered con- 
tinued to bring many English, Scotch, Irish, and Germans 

(IHI) 



THE PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW 185 

into the state all through the nineteenth century. Many 
Welsh miners settled in the mining region. 

In spite of their differences in customs and ideas, all 
these peoples have much in common, and have quickly 
and easily become a part of the great body of American 
citizens in the state. But the closing years of the nine- 
teenth century saw the coming of a class of immigrants far 
more alien in race, speech, and religious ties than any who 
had preceded them. Then from southern and eastern 
Europe there came great numbers of Italians, Poles, 
Hungarians, and Russians. Unlike the earlier settlers, 
many of these later immigrants do not come, primarily, 
to make homes, but are brought by the temptation, held out 
by great corporations and steamship companies, of higher 
wages than in their home lands. They congregate in the 
cities or flock to the coal-mining and coke-making regions 
of the state. To all these race elements must be added 
the negroes, of whom Pennsylvania has a larger number 
than any other northern state. 

Can we mold all these races, so unlike, into a unified 
people? Will the Slavs, the Russians, and the Italians 
blend into our life as easily as did the Irish and the Ger- 
mans? They quickly learn our manners and speech, but 
if we fail to give them also our intellectual and spiritual 
heritage they will remain a constant menace to our free 
institutions. If, on the other hand, we provide ample 
opportunities for their education and give them a square 
deal in our social, industrial, and political life they will 
rapidly become Americanized, and their many admirable 
qualities will enrich and strengthen the citizenship of the 
state. 



i86 IIISTOKV OK PENNSYLVANIA 

102. The Conservation of our Resources. — The American 
people are just beginning to realize that they have been 
wasting their splendid natural resources in the past, and 
that the future welfare of their country demands a radical 
change in this course. Nowhere is a policy of wise con- 
servation more vital than in Pennsylvania. We have 
seen how the industrial greatness of our state depends 
ujx)n its abundant supply of fuel. Vast as are its deposits 
of coal, they are limited, and, once exhausted, they are 
gone forever. In the past nearly as much coal has been 
wasted in mining as has been extracted from the earth. 
This waste ought to be greatly reduced and, as far as pos- 
sible, other fuels should be substituted for coal. In 
many places water power should take the place of steam 
power. 

Our supplies of petroleum and of natural gas are strictly 
limited in amount, and at the present rate of consumption 
they will be gone long before the deposits of coal are all 
used. At no ])()int is there greater need of wise use than 
in dealing with these valuable resources. We need laws 
against the waste of natural gas by allowing it to escape 
into the air. We ought to use oil only for those purposes 
for which it is best adapted, and discourage the develop- 
ment of new wells merely for the sake of making money. 
It is a question if we ought not to prohibit the exportation 
oi j)etroleum altogether. 

The available water power in the streams of Pennsyl- 
vania is sufficient, when converted into electricity, to 
"operate every mill, drive every spindle, propel every 
train and boat, and light every city, town, and village in 
the state." In the davs to come, as coal diminishes in 



THE PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW 187 

quantity and becomes higher in price, the prosperity of 
the state will depend more and more upon the wise use of 
this wealth of water power. It seems clear that the state 
should keep the control of its water power in its own hands. 
This does not mean that the state ought, necessarily, to 
own and operate the power plants in which the water power 
is converted into electricity, but that it should retain such 
control over those to whom it gives the right to build such 
plants as will enable it to secure proper payment from them 
for the rights given them, and to prevent them from charg- 
ing excessive rates to the users of the power. 

We have seen that Pennsylvania once had a great system 
of inland waterways. By buying the canals and then 
abandoning them and in various other ways the railroads 
have greatly reduced water trafi&c, and in many cases have 
destroyed it altogether. European countries have shown 
that such actions by the railroad companies may be pre- 
vented by law^, and that the development of waterways may 
go hand in hand with the expansion of railways. We 
might well profit by their example. 

There is great need of the conservation of the forests of 
the state, not only to maintainan adequate supply of timber, 
but to prevent destructive floods in the rivers. The water 
from rain and melting snow runs very rapidly from the 
mountains upon which the timber has all been cut and 
carries much of the soil with it. In the past there has been 
great waste of timber in logging and in manufacturing, and 
still more by preventable forest fires. At present in the 
country as a whole we are cutting our timber more than 
three times as fast as it is growing. We must reduce waste 
in cutting and from fires, maintain the forests we still 



lS8 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

have and reforest areas burned over, battle with insect 
pests, and, where [xjssible, substitute other building mate- 
rials for lumber. 

The soil is the most important of all our natural resources 
because from it must come our food supply. Yet land is 
often worn out either by the carrying away of the soil by 
runnini^ water or through the loss of its essential elements 
by unwise cropping. The iirst loss may be prevented by 
keeping the steep slopes covered with forests; the second, 
by more scientific methods of farming. Other prevent- 
able losses are due to noxious insects, weeds, and plant and 
animal diseases. The need of the hour is a great campaign 
of agricultural education in Pennsylvania. An eminent 
authority says: "This country cannot feed the population 
which it must necessarily have within comparatively few 
years if it does not change its agricultural methods." 

103. Growth in Education. — Pennsylvania is justly 
proud of its free school system. Educational development 
since the passage of the great school law of 1834 has been 
steady and sound. This growth must go on even more 
rapidly if it is to keep pace with the demands of the 
present and the near future. An equal opportunity to 
get an education is the righ{ of every child in the state. 
Such equality does not exist when the children in one dis- 
trict have a seven months term with a poorly paid teacher, 
while those in a neighboring district have a ten months 
term with a more highly paid teacher. There is urgent 
need of the lengthening and equalizing of the school 
term. The day is coming when we shall have an all-the- 
year school, with its work adapted to the seasons as 
they come and go. 



THE PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY AND TO-MORRO\\" 189 

Equally urgent is the need of growth in the aims and 
spirit of our schools. Some day we shall be wise enough 
to see that it is just as important for children to learn to 
work with their hands and to be taught to play wisely and 
joyfully as it is to study lessons in books. Much useless 
■ matter will be cut out of our courses of study, and children 
will have time to master those things which have a direct 
relation to the life that lies before them. The first great 
step toward the coming better day in education is the train- 
ing of a generation of teachers of greater teaching skill, 
broader knowledge, and wider \'ision. Our people are 
slowly coming to see that education is not merely a matter 
of school days, but of life. When they fully realize this 
truth they will insist that the state provide continuation 
schools, lecture courses, libraries, museums, concerts, 
art galleries, and playgrounds for all the people. 

104. Industrial Justice. — Pennsylvania boasts of its 
industrial supremacy; yet it may be questioned if this 
leadership has not been bought at too dear a price. In- 
dustries were developed in order to supply the needs of 
men. They have done much to create our modern civiliza- 
tion. But they are now carried on in large part for the 
profit of the small number of men who own the factories, 
mines, and railroads. Too often the greed, ignorance, or 
indifference of these "masters of industry" have been re- 
sponsible for child labor, for long hours of daily toil under 
high pressure in unattractive and unsanitary places, for 
wages too low to permit a wholesome standard of living, 
and for the failure to guard against accidents in dangerous 
occupations or to provide adequate compensation for the 
victims of such accidents or for their families. 



I go HIMOKV OF I'KNNSVLN ANIA 

W r must cure these ills before the social and industrial 
life of our state can be wholly sane and healthy. Much is 
already being accomj)lishe(l in this direction, but more 
remains to be done. Most im})ortant of all, we must learn 
to shift the emphasis in our industrial life from profits to 
use and serxice. We must stoj) talking about the demands 
of industry and insist with all our strength upon the rights 
of men and women and children. 

105. Civic Righteousness. — Pennsylvania, like all the 
other states of the Union, has its serious political problems. 
The government of its cities leaves much to be desired and 
the enforcement of the lav^^ is sometimes very lax. Too 
often our ])olitics have been corrupted by the power of 
money. Most im])ortant of all is the vital question of 
whether our Legislature, executive officers, and courts 
shall serve all the people or only that small part of society 
which controls the wealth of the land. 

In spite of great evils in the political life of the state 
never were the prospects brighter for the dawning of a 
better day than they are at present. At no period in all 
its past has Pennsylvania had so many upright, courageous, 
and ])ublic spirited citizens as to-day. It lies with them, 
and still more with the boys and girls who are to be the 
citizens of to-morrow, to see to it that Penn's "Holy Ex- 
periment" shall ultimately result in a land of peace, of 
humanity, of justice, and of equal opportunity for all men. 
It is righteousness that exalteth a state. 



INDEX 



Abbey, Edwin A., 177 

Abolitionists, 1 20-1 21 

Academies, 35 

Adams county, 26 

Adams, John Quincy, 123 

Agriculture, 29, 96-97, 168-169 

Albany, Congress, 38; plan of union, 38 

Alexander, John W., 177 

Alison, Dr. Francis, 35 

Alleghany College, 118, 119; county, 

155; Mountains, 12-13, 104; river, 

14, 88, 90, 92, 105 
Allentown, 162, 164 
Altoona, 171 
American party, 129 
Antietam, 134 
Anti-masonic party, 81 
Anti-slavery societies, 1 20-1 21 
Arkwright, loi 
Armistead, 141 
Armstrong county, 94 
Armstrong, John, 54 
Art, 175-178 

Articles of Confederation, 64-65 
Associators, 54 
Audubon, John James, 173 
Averell, William W., 143 

Bache, Benjamin Franklin, 178 

Baird, Spencer F., 174 

Baldwin, Henry, 124 

Baldwin Locomotive Works, 171 

Baltimore, 40, 132 

Baltimore, Lord, 9-11 

Banks, 98-100 

Barnard, George Grey, 177-178 

Bartram, John, 36, 172, 173 

Bartram, William, 173 

Battleflags, 146-147 

Bayard, George D., 145 

Beaux, Cecelia, 177 

Beaver, James A., 156 

Bedford, 86 



Bellefonte, 133, 156 
Berks county, 25, 32, 105 
Bethlehem, 24, loo, 119 
Biddle, Edward, 45 
Biddle, James, 78 
Biddle, Nicholas, 100 ■ 
Bigler, WiUiam, 123 
Bill of Rights, 61, 83 
Birmingham, 22, 50 
Birney, James G., 121 
Black, Jeremiah S., 124, 131 
Blue Ridge, 12, 32 
Boats, 87-88 
Bohlen, Henry, 145 
Boker, George H., 179 
Bouquet, Colonel, 32 
Bradford, 107 
Bradford, Andrew, 36 
Brandywine, battle of, 49-50 
Brewster, Benjamin H., 158 
Brinton, Daniel G., 174 
Brooke, John R., 145 
Brooks, Edward, 118 
Brown, Charles Brockden, 179 
Brown, Jacob, 78 
Bryan, George, 61, 62 
Bryn Mawr College, 119 
Buchanan, James, 124, 130, 131 
Bucknell University, 119 
Bucks county, 21, 25, 35, 168 
Buckshot War, 122 
Buford, General, 138 
Building materials, 164-165 
Burrowes, Thomas H., 113, 117 
Butler, Colonel Zebulon, 53 

Cadwalader, Dr. Thomas, 35 
Cadwalader, John, 49, 54 
Cameron, J. Donald, 157 
Cameron, Simon, 145, 157 
Campbell, James, 123 
Canals, 90-94, 104 
Cannon, James, 61 



(191) 



192 



INDEX 



Carbon county, 104 

Carlx>ndalc, 04 

Carlisle, 80, 103, 118, ii,b 

Carlisle, Abraham, 63 

Camijjie, Andrew, 162 

("ariunlers' Hall, 44 

lartwriulu, loi 

Cedarcraft, iSi 

Cement, 165 

Censors, Council of, 6? 

Centennial Exposition, 150 

Center county, 118, 128 

Chadds' Eord, 40-50 

Chambersburg, 134, 136 

Charles I, 2 

Charles II, 6, 7 

Chester, 20, 164, ibt> 

Chester county, 21, 35, 104, 105, 119, 
168, 181 

Christiana riot, 127-128 

Church of England, 2, 22 

Civic righteousness, 190 

Classes, social, 28-29 

Clearfield county, 103, 166 

Cliveden, 28 

Clymer, George, 49, 57 

Coal, 16, 103-104, 162-163 

Coatesvillc, 162 

Coke, 163 

Colcbrookdalc, 105 

Colleges, 118-119 

Columbia, 88, 92, 103, 136 

Commerce, 29-30, 97-98, 171 

Committee of Public Safety. 47 

"Common Sense," 48 

Conemaugh, 80, 92, 15O 

Concstoga wagons, 30, 71, 8O-87 

Connecticut, 1 1 

Connellsville, 1O3 

Conservation, 1 80- 188 

Constitution of the United States, 65- 
09 

Constitutionalists, 69 

Constitutions, state, of 1701, 33-34; 
of 1770, O1-62; of 1790. 69-70; of 
1838, 82-83; of 1873, 150-151 

Continental Congress, first, 44-45; 
second, 46, 60, 64 

Conventions, constitutional, of 177O, 
60-O1; to ratify Federal constitu- 
tion, 6()-0(); constitutional, of 
1780-1700, Og-70; constitutional, 
of 1837,82; constitutional, of 1873, 
150-151 



Conway cabal, 53 

Cooke, Jay, 149-150 

Cope, Edward D., 174 

Cornwall, 105 

Cornwallis, Lord, 50 

Coventry, 104 

Coxe, Tench, 101 

Cramp, Charles H., 165-166 

Cramp, William, 165-166 

Cromwell, Oliver, 2 

Cumberland county, 26,32; Vallev. 13, 

136 
Curtin, Andrew G., 130, 133-134 
Curtin, Camp, 133 
Custer, 141 

Dallas, Alexander J., 75, 123 
Dallas, George M., 124 
Darlington, Dr. William, log 
Decatur, Stephen, 78 
Delaware, 9; county, 119; river, 7,9, 

13-14, 19, 20 
Democratic-Republicans, 72, 73, 75, 

80 
Democrats, 80-81, 130, 156, 157 
Dennie, Joseph, 178 
Dickens, Charles, 93 
Dickinson, 41, 42, 45, 47, 48, 57, 64, 

66 
Dickinson College, 118, 119, 124 
Dixon, Jeremiah, 11 
Dock, Christopher, 34 
Drake, Edwin L., 107 
Duane, William. 178 
Duane, William J., 123 
Dunkers, 24 
Du Quesne, Fort. 32 
Dutch in Pennsylvania, ig 

Earle, Thcjmas. 121 

Easton, 119, 162, 164 

Education, 34-35, 108-119, 188-189 

Egan, Maurice Francis, 179 

Elk county, 166 

Elkton, 40 

English, Thomas Dunn, 179 

Ephrata, 36 

Erie, 12, 78, 106 

Erie, Lake, 13; battle of, 78 

Estates of the Penns, 63 

Evans, Oliver, 94 

Ewing, 40 

Excise, 73 

Executive Council, 62 



INDEX 



193 



Fairmount Park. 21, 150 

Fayette county, 105 

Federalists, 72, 73, 75, 80 

Findlay, William, 78 

Findley, William, 69 

Fitch, John, 88 

Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 57 

Forney, John W., 178 

P'ort Alercer, 52 

Fort Mifflin, 52 

Forty Fort, 53 

Forward, Walter, 123 

Fox, George, 2-3 

Frame of Government, 8 

Franklin and Marshall College, 119 

Franklin, Benjamin, 23, 36-39, 46, 47, 

48, 49, 57, 58, 64, 66, 90, 172 
Franklin county, 26, 134 
Fredericksburg, 134 
Free Soilers, 129 
Fremont, John C, 130 
French and Indian War, 32 
French Creek, 104 
Friends, 2-4, 21-23, 34, 46-47, 62, iii, 

119, 120 
Fries, John, 74 
Fries Rebellion, 74 
Fritz, John, 162 
Frontier, 31-32 
Fugitive slave law, 126-127 
Fulton, Robert, 88-89 
Furness, Horace Howard, 178-179 

Gallatin, Albert, 76, 123 

Galloway, Joseph, 45, 46 

Gas, 107, 163 

Gazette, The Pennsylvania, 38 

Geary, John W., 143, 149 

Genet, 73 

German governors, 78-81 

Germans in Pennsylvania, 23-25, 40, 

47, III 
Germantown, 24; battle of, 52, 100 
Gettysburg, 119; battle of, 134-142 
Gilpin, Henry 1)., 124 
Girard College, 98 
Girard, Stephen, 72, 97-98 
Glass, 165 

Government, 32-34, 151-154 
Gowen, 155 

Graham's Magazine, 178 
Grant, General, 149 
Great Valley, 12-13 
Greene, 50 



Greene county, 107 
Gregg, David M., 141, 143 
Gregg, J. Irvin, 145 
Grier, Robert C, 124 
Grow, Galusha A., 145 

Hamilton, Alexander, 71, 72, 73, 76 

Hamilton, Andrew, 35-36 

Hancock, Winfield S., 140, 143 

Hanover, 141 

Hanway, Castner, 127 
j Harrisburg, 102, 103, 122, 132, 136, 148 
! Hartranft, John F., 143, 149 
j Hastings, Daniel H., 156 

Haverford College, 119 

Hayes, Isaac I., 175 

Hayes, John Russell, 179-181 

Hays, Alexander, 145 

Hessians, 47 

Hiester, Joseph, 78-79, 109-110 

High schools, 114 

Hillegass, Michael, 57 

Home life, 30-31 

Homestead, 155, 161 

Honesdale, 94 

Hooker, General, 136 

Hopkinson, Francis, 57 

Hopkinson, Joseph, 179 

Hovenden, Thomas, 176 

Howard, General, 139 

Howe, General William, 49, 50, 51 

Hoyt, Henry M., 156 

Hudson, Henry, 19 

Humphries, Charles, 45, 48 

Huntingdon Turnpike, 86 

Independence declared, 47-49 
Independence Hall, 48, 131 
Indiana, 117 
Indians, 16-18, 31-32 
Industrial justice, 189-190 
Industries, miscellaneous, 166-168 
Ingersoll, Charles J., 124 
Ingcrsoll, Jared, 57 
Ingham, Samuel D., 123 
Irish in Pennsylvania, 22, 184 
Iron, 104-105, 161-162 
Irvine, James, 54 

Jackson, Andrew, 80, 100, 123 
James I, 2 
James II, 6 
Jasper, Margaret, i 
Jefferson, Thomas, 72, 73, 80 



104 



INDEX 



Johnston, William F., 123 
Johnstown, 15^, i()i 
Jones, William, 123 
Juniata, 14, 80, 105 

Kane, Elisha K., 174-175 
Kfith. Sir William, ^t, 
Kcnnctt Sf|uare, 22, 4q, 127, 181 
Kensington, 129 
Kiskiminelas, 92 
Know Nothings, 129 
Knyjihauscn, 49 
Kutztown, 1 17 

Labor troubles, 154-155 

Labor unions, 161 

Latkawanna county, 104 

La Fayette, 50, 80 

Lafayette College, 118 

Lancaster, 30, 45, 50, 63, 78, 100, 119, 

143 
Lancaster county, 25, ^6, 88, 105, 127, 

128, 168 
Lancaster, Joseph, 109 
Lancaster Pike, 85 
Lattimer, 155 
l^aws. important, 158-159 
Lea, Ilenry C, 179 
Lebanon, 105; county, 25; Valley, 13 
Lee, Richard Henry, 48 
Lee, Robert E., 134, 140, 141, 142 
Legal profession, 35-36 
Lehigh Coal-mine Company, 103 
Lehigh county, 25; river, 14 
Lehigh University, 119 
Leidy, Jose|)h, 173 
Leiper, Thomas, 94 
"Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," 

.4-' 
Lewisburg, 1 19 
Lewis, Elijah, 127 
Liberty Hell, 48 
Liberty party, 121 

Lincoln, Abraham, 130, 131-132, 142 
Lincoln University, 119 
Liquor traftic, 156 
Literature, 178-183 
Livingston. Robert R., 90 
Lloyd, Thomas, 22 
Lock Haven, 92, 106 
Loe, Thomas, 4. 5 
Logan, (leorge, 75 
Logan, James, 22-23, 33 
Longstreet, 140 



Lowell, James Russell, 121 
Lumber, 106, 165 
Lutheran Church, 24 
Luzerne county, 104, 155 

Macadam, 85 

MacVeagh, Wayne, 158 

Madison, James, 65-66 

Mahanoy, 103 

Manatawney Creek, 104 

Mansfield, 117 

Manufactures, 29, 100-102, 104-107 

March, Francis A., 178 

Marietta Academy, 113 

Markham, William, 20 

Maryland, 9-1 1 

Mason and Dixon's line, 11, 25 

Mason, Charles, 11 

Matlack, Timothy, 61 

Mauch Chunk, 94, 103 

May, Captain, 19 

McCall, George A., 143 

McClclIan, George B., 143 

McClure, Alexander K., 178 

McKean, Thomas, 67, 74-75 

McKecsport, 161 

McMaster, John B., 179 

McParlan, James, 155 

Meade, George G., 136, 140, 141, 

142 
Medicine, 35 
Mennonites, 24 
Meredith, Samuel, 54 
Meredith. William M., 123 
Mexican War, 123, 126, 127 
Mifflin, Thomas, 45, 55, 65, 71, 74 
Militia, 49, 54, 132 
Millersville, 117 
Mitchell, S. Weir, 179 
Molly Maguires, 155 
Money, 63, 98-100 
Monongahela river, 14, 88, 90, 105 
Montgomery county, 25 
Moravians, 24 
Morris, George P., 179 
Morris, Gouverncur, 66 
Morris, Robert, 48, 49, 57, 58, 64, 66, 

150 
Morton, John, 45, 48, 49 
Muhlenberg, Frederick A., 25, 57, 173; 

(K>UhiIf Hcinrich, 173; Henry M., 

24-25; John Peter Gabriel, 24-25, 

55, 173 
Mural painting, 176-177 



INDEX 



195 



National Republicans, So 

National road, 86 

Native American Movement, 128-129 

Neshaminy, 35 

New Castle, 161 

New Englanders in Pennsylvania, 27 

Newspapers, 36, 178 

New York, 12 

Normal schools, 113, 11 7-1 18 

Norristown, 50 

Northampton county, 25, 32 

Northumberland county, 104, 129 

Nutt, Samuel, 104 

Oakley, Violet, 177 
Ohio river, 14 
Oil City, 107 

Packer, Asa, 119 

Packer, William F., 129, 131 

Paine, Thomas, 47-48 

Panic of 1837, 122; of 1873, i49~i5o 

Paoli Massacre, 51-52 

Parke, John G., 145 

Parker, 127 

Parties, 69, 72-73, 80-81 

Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 24 

Pattison, Robert E., 156 

Peale, Charles Wilson, 175-176 

Peale, Rembrandt, 176 

Peary, Robert E., 175 

Penn, Admiral, i, 5, 6, 7; John," son 
of Richard, 33; John, son of Wil- 
liam, 33; Richard, 33; Thomas, ^^^^■, 
William, early years, 1-2; becomes 
a Quaker, 4-6; acquires Pennsyl- 
vania, 6-7; his "Holy Experi- 
ment," 7-8; treaty with the In- 
dians, 17; first visit to Pennsyl- 
vania, 20-21; death, 33 

Pennamite and Yankee War, 11-12 

Pennell, Joseph, 177 

Pennsylvania, acquired by Penn, 6-7; 
boundaries, Q-12; surface, 12-13; 
rivers and lakes, 13-15; natural 
resources, 15-16; colonial life in, 
28-39; in the Revolution, 40-58; 
ratifies the Constitution, 66-69; 
in the War of 181 2, 76-77; growth 
of, 81-82; education in, 108-119; 
in the Civil War, 131-148; in the 
Spanish War, 158 

Pennsylvania College, 119 

Pennsylvania Hall, 121 



Pennsylvania Railroad, 93, 169 
Pennsylvania Reserves, 133, 143 
Pennsylvania School Journal, 113 
Pcnnypacker, Galusha, 145 
Pennypacker, Samuel W., 157 
Perkiomen, 24 

Petroleum, 16, 106-107, 163-164 
Philadelphia, 20, 28, 40, 41, 78, 86, 92, 

100, 103, 104, 106, 119, 121, 128, 

129, 130, 154, 164 
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, 

104, 169 
Philadelphia county, 21 
Phoenixville, 105, 162 
Pickett, 141-142 
Pietists, 24 
Pinchot, Giflord, 174 
Pipe lines, 163 
Pittsburgh, 12, 86, 90, 93, 103, 104, 105, 

106, 154, 155, 161-162 
Plank roads, 86 
Poe, Edgar Allan, 178 
Pollock, James, 129, 133 
Pontiac, 32 

Poor Richard's Almanac, 38 
Portage Railroad, 92 
Porter, David R., 122 
Porter, James M., 123 
Port Folio, the, 178 
Potter county, 166 
Potter, James, 54 
Pottstown, 104 
Presbyterians, 25-26, 34 
Priestley, Joseph, 173 
Printing, 36, 178 
Proud, Robert, 179 
Puritans, 2 

Quakers (see Friends). 
Quay, Matthew Stanley, 157 

Races in Pennsylvania, 21-27, 184-185 
Railroads, 169-171 
Ramsay, David, 179 
Randall, Samuel J., 157 
Read, Thomas Buchanan, 55, 181 
Reading, 45, 91, 155, 162 
Rcdemptioners, 28-29 
Redfield, Edward W., 177 
Reed, Josei^h, 63 
Preformed Church, 24 
Reid, Captain Mayne, 179 
Republicans, 69, 72, 73, 129-130, 156, 
157 



196 



IXDKX 



Kcvcrc. I'aul, 44 

Revolt of Pennsylvania soldiers, 6.^ 

Revolution, causes, 40-44; opening 
scenes, 44-47 

Reynolds, John !•'., i.^q, 142-143 

Rhoads, Samuel, 45, 46 

Riots, 121, 128-129, I54~i55 

Rilner, Joseph, 80. 81, 112, 121, 122 

Rillenhouse, David, 36, 57, 172 

Rivers, 13-15, 87-88 

Roach, John, 166 

Roberts, John, 63 

Roosevelt, 155 

Ross, Betsy, 54; George, 45, 49; James, 
74. 75 

Rolhermel. Peter V., 17?) 

Rothrotk, Joseph T.. 174 

Rush, Henjamin, 30, 35, 49, 57; Rich- 
ard, 75, 123 

Rutter, Thomas, 104 

Sabbath school, 36 

Sargent, John S., 176-177 

Sartain. John, 176; William, 176; 
Mniil y, 1 7f) 

Schlatter, Mil had, 24 

School code of i 9 1 i . 159 

School law of 1834, 109-111 

Schools, 34-35, 108-119 

Schuylkill county, 104; river, 14, 19, 
20, 50, 151 

Schwenkfeldcrs, 24 

Science, 3<), 172-175 

Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania, 25-27, 
40, 47 

Scott, Thomas A., 169 

Scranton, 104, 154, 155, 162, 164 

Sergeant. John, 126 

Shaikamaxon, 17 

Shamokin, 103 

Shenandoah Valley, 13, 136 

Shiphiiildinn, i'i5-i06 

Shijipen. Dr. William, 35 

Ship|)ensl)urg, 117 

Shuize, John Andrew, 80 

Shunk, l-rancis R., 122-123 

Sickles, (ieneral, 140 

Signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 49 

Slate, 1 05 

Slater, Samuel, 101 

Slaves, 29 

Smilie, John. 69 

Smith, Charles Emory, 158 



Smith, Dr. William, 35 

Smith, James, 49 

Smith, Joseph, 97 

Snyder, Simon, 75, 78 

South Hethlchem, 162 

South Mountain, 12-13 

South wark, 129 

.Sower, Christopher, 36 

Springett, (iulielma, 6 

Stage coaches, 31, 87 

Stamp Act Congress, 41 

Standard Oil Company, 164 

Stanton, Edwin M., 145 

State College, 118 

Stale Teachers' Association, 113 

St. Clair, Arthur, 55, 65, 71 

Steamboats, 88-89 

Steel, 161-162 

Stecllon, 162 

Steel Trust, 162 

Stenton, j8 

Stephenson, George, 94 

Steuben, Haron, 53 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 111-112, 145-146 

Stewart, Charles. 78 

Strikes. 154-155 

Stone, Roy. 145 

Stone, William A., 157 

St. Thomas College, 119 

Stuart, Edwin S., 157 

Stuart, General, 134, 141 

Sturgeon, Daniel, 124 

Stuyvesant, 19-20 

St. Vincent College, 119 

Sullivan, (jcneral, 53-54 

Sumter. Fort. 132 

Susquehanna, 1 5, 14, 88, 92, 103, 136, 

181 
Swarthmore College, 119 
Swedes in Pennsylvania, 19-20 

Tanneries, 166 

Tariff laws, 101, 102, 157 

Taverns, 31, 87 

Taylor, Bayard, 181-183 

Taylor, George, 49 

Taylor, Zachary, 123 

Tea ship on the Delaware, 44 

Tea tax, 42-4^ 

Telford, 85 

Tener, John K.. 157 

Tennant, Rev. William, 35 

Text-books, 109 

Textiles, 1O4 



INDEX 



197 



Thomson, Charles, 57 
Tioga county, 166 
Titusville, 107 ' 
Tories, 46, 53, 62, 63 
Towanda, 126 
Transportation, 30, 84-95 
Travel, 31, 84-95 
Trusts, 1 60-1 61 
Turnpikes, 85-87 

Ulster, 25, 26 
Underground Railroad, 12S 
University of Pennsylvania, 35, 118 
University of Pittsburgh, 118 
Upland, 20 

Valley Forge, 52-53, 106 
Van Dyke, Henry, 170 
Venango county, 107 
Villanova, 119 
Vincent, Strong, 145 
Virginia, 12 

Walking purchase, 17-18 
Wanamaker, John, 158 
Warren, General, 140 
Warren Tavern, 50 
Washington county, 107 
Washington, George, 45, 49, 52, 53, 65, 

72, 74 
Watt, James, loi 
Wayne, Anthony, 50, 52, 55, 71 
Webster, Daniel, 45 
Welcome, 20 

Welsh in Pennsylvania, 22 
West, Benjamin, 90, 175 



West Chester, 117 

Westinghouse, George, 171 

Westmoreland county, 119 

Wharton, Thomas, Jr., 62 

Whigs, 80, 81, 123, 129 

Whiskey Insurrection, 73-74 

White and Hazard, 103, 104 

Whitchill, Robert, 69 ^ 

Whitney, Eli, loi 

Whittier, John G., 120 

Wickersham, James P., 113-114, 117, 

118 
Wilkes Barre, 11, 104, 155, 156, 164 
Wilkins, William, 123 
Williamsport, 92, 106 
Willing, Thomas, 46, 48 
Wilmerding, 171 
Wilmot, David, 126 
Wilmot Proviso, 126 
Wilson, Alexander, 173 
Wilson, James, 46, 48, 49, 57, 65, 66, 

67 
Wister, Owen, 179 
Wolf, George, 80, no, 112 
Woolman, John, 120 
Wrightsville, 136 
Wyoming Massacre, 53 
Wyoming Valley, 11, 27, 53, 103 

Yellow fever, 72 
York, 30, 50, 90, 136 
York county, 25 

Zeisberger, David, 34 
Zenger, Peter, 35-36 
Zinzendorf, 34 



M^e-^^'-r^t^ 



HK269-78 



.^x 'i 



^^-n^. 



V 






^ov^ r'^ 



-^ .r 



















.V 



.^ 



,0 . • * o 



o m O 



o 

V °^ 










^t ^'•-^;'- 



i ^ 



^^^ 
^ 

•^ 
■^ 






-V^' 



"oy 



h * 


.^ 


\ =^ 










\:5 


'o , 


. • A 
















< 


^o 


V-. 




x° 




>: 




^ 1 


%.\.^* 




./ 

-<-." 










°' 




-^^ 


o< 






:^..^ 












V 



^^-n^. 



^"• 



.^0■ 



%. 






-" 0' 






V 



° : 


^o 


V" ."-A^. 


""o *'>^.- 


.0 


•7-. >- 'i- 


O^ "..o' 




' ^ 








: ^^v 







* o 



o. I** 



.V 






^-■" 



i^.i^. 



A*^ 



"/. 






iV.>>. 






-<D ^.■ 



V ^^ 







c^l'L 73 



N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 



-^ • > 



vO-/\ 









^^^^^ 



